Lift Up Your Eyes: The founding of an aviation library at the Morristown Regional Airport spurs donation of rare edition

The book was donated by Wilson Hains, who heard about the library while chatting with Nelson Collins at one of the airshows held at Morristown Airport. Wilson remembered how Nelson loves planes and history and told him about the book.

“He can get real excited,” Wilson adds, “so I said I’ll bring it to you.” The two met and looked through the book carefully, and “it was just a good visit. The book’s there for the airport….It’s original. I’ve had it for, I’m going to say, pretty close to exactly 73 years. It was my dad’s.”

Vince Miraldi, who founded the library, explains that the book, “Open Your Eyes,” was “basically published by Ford as a promotional for air travel and the Trimotor.” The book originally came, according to Vince’s research, with two 8x10 glossies, one of the Trimotor, and one of Henry Ford Jr. himself.

The Ford Trimotor had an engine on the nose plus one on each wing. “Lift Up Your Eyes” was published while flying was in its infancy, a time in which flying was, as Vince points out, “only for the elite, and they were trying to open it up to businesses and transport of goods and mail.”

The book also demonstrated how flight would apply to the military and was “looking at the vision and future of aviation and how diverse it can be,” something that people today really take for granted less than 100 years later.

Wilson Hains knows firsthand about the history of aviation, both through his childhood in Morristown and the twenty-years he spent in the military.

He recalls, ”My dad was one of the early members of the CVB, the Civil Aeronautics Board, and he worked at the Will Rogers Airfield in Oklahoma. He owned a couple of what we call the old trucker planes. They were the thing in the ‘40s and early ‘50s. Actually, he retired from Will Rogers when it was moved to the FAA, and he had some other positions with it.”

During this time, Wilson’s father met Henry Ford, Jr. though he’s not sure when, but Wilson does remember that his dad gave him the book when he was about seven-years-old. The book was in beautiful shape, but then later when he spent four years in Germany, the book was stored in a shed, and when he returned it was already damaged.

Born and raised by his mother in Hamblen County, Wilson attended Alpha School, where he fondly remembers a local field trip to Morristown Airport:

“I came to that airport when it was a dirt strip…and my first trip we walked there.” It was around 1947, and Wilson was in the first grade.

He remembers, “Kathleen Manley…had flown back from Africa…and landed on that dirt strip in an old airplane.” After the children watched her plane land, “she told us stories about doing the mission work in Africa and eating snails. I still remember those things,” Wilson chuckles. “I watched the airport grow from a dirt strip to where it is today.”

Later, when he was 16, Wilson joined the U.S. Army, where he graduated from jump school in June 1958, two months before his 17th birthday. During his 20 years in the military, he served in Korea, and, although he had a ninth grade education, he “went about as high as you could go with research and development” for his rank by the time he retired. Today he lives near Morristown Airport, “about one mile as the crow flies, two miles if you go by road.”

With deep roots in both aviation and Hamblen County, Wilson wants to pass along his childhood copy of “Lift Up Your Eyes,” to those who can truly treasure it: “I gave it to take apart and frame pieces and put it in your museum or library…whatever you think is good,” Wilson tells Vince as they discuss plans for preserving the book.

While Wilson’s hope is to ensure the book is shared with people who can appreciate and benefit from it, Vince is researching the best ways to both preserve and share given that the book’s condition is “kinda beyond repair. I think we would degrade the value trying to repair it.”

Vince, who joined the EAA Chapter 1494 about three years ago, founded the library, which opened this past May. His experience with airplanes, both their mechanics and history, has lasted most of his life. He was part of the Apollo program while “growing up near the Finger Lakes in New York State,” and has worked in aerospace for 40 years. First, he worked with Northrop in Los Angeles and then with Boeing for 27 years in Seattle where he also volunteered giving tours every other weekend at the Museum of Flight. After retiring five years ago, he moved to Jefferson City. “I’ve been in the four corners,” he laughs, and in each corner he has continued “to promote and educate people in aviation,” even during retirement.

At Boeing, Vince worked to restore a B17 bombing that was in the hanger and was able to witness its first flight after restoration in Boeing Field. Since then Vince “had an affinity for that type of plane.” Years later, after moving to Jefferson City, Vince was sitting one day on his deck and heard a plane. “I thought, that sounds like an old bomber, and sure enough, it was a B17.” He found out it was coming to Morristown Airport, and as Vince says, “the rest was history.”

Shortly after, he joined the EAA Chapter 1494. Vince saw what the chapter was doing for the youth, and one day asked if there was a community resource for the kids in the community to learn about aviation, and they said no, “But knock yourself out.” With years of experience under his belt and a love for helping others learn about aviation, Vince did just that: “I kinda took the bull by the horns, and it’s been a success.”

He started by mentioning that the chapter was collecting books and starting the library at meetings, and then he began passing out flyers to local libraries. The library started with a tiny bookshelf and exploded overnight, and Vince is still looking to expand the library and offer digital options to make resources more accessible.

“People are enthused about it,” Vince says. “They love to get rid of their old books that are hanging around. They get repurposed rather than collecting dust.”

People can find more information about the library by visiting the “Morristown TN EAA Chapter 1494” Facebook page or by visiting the library located at the Morristown Airport.