Local aviation expert says John Glenn’s death has not ‘sunk in yet’

“I’m not ready to talk about John Glenn in the past tense.”

That is what Tim Gaffney, aviaiton writer and communications director for the National Aviation Heritage Alliance, had to say about Glenn’s death on Thursday.

“I don’t think it's sunk in yet,” Gaffney said. He was such a vibrant guy. He was just somebody that you thought was going to go on forever. He was so healthy for so long it was easy to believe he would”

Gaffney covered Glenn as a writer for the Dayton Daily News and said that as a senator Glenn took a technical approach to public service.

“As a politician he was very, very interested in the workings of government. ..not so much in making laws or passing laws, but in working on how government worked and trying to make government work better,” he said.

“I think it was kind of an engineering approach. ..because that was his background, flying and engineering. He was sort of a technician I think.”

Gaffney also said Glenn was the definition of an Ohioan.

“He was an Ohioans through and through. John Glenn was a Buckeye. I think he loved Ohio and he loved aviation,” Gaffney said. “His first flight as a kid was in a WACO made in Troy. He served as honorary chair in 2003 for the Anniversary of Flight Celebration. I think Ohio and aviation were in his blood.”

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