NFF Gold Medal Recipients
Biography
Juan Terry Trippe is most well-known for founding Pan American World Airways, one of the world’s most prominent airlines of the 20th century. Trippe enrolled at Yale University, but left to apply for flight training with the Navy when the U.S. entered World War I. He was designated as a Naval Aviator and commissioned as an Ensign in the Naval Reserve, but the end of the war precluded him from flying in combat. Trippe returned to Yale, and graduated in 1921. Trippe was treasurer at the first-ever meet of the National Intercollegiate Flying Association in 1920.
Trippe became bored of working on Wall Street after commencement, and created Long Island Airways. By selling stock to old Yale classmates to raise money, Trippe developed the airline and invested in Colonial Air Transport. Interested in operating to the Caribbean, Trippe created the Aviation Corporation of the Americas. Based in Florida, the company would evolve into the unofficial U.S. flag carrier, Pan American Airways.
Trippe bought the China National Aviation Corporation to provide domestic air service in the Republic of China, resulting in Pan Am becoming the first airline to cross the Pacific Ocean. The airline continued to grow throughout World War II, and Trippe gave up presidency of the airline in 1968.
Trippe suffered a stroke in September 1980 which forced him to cut back on his workload. He died after suffering a second stroke at his New York City home on April 3, 1981, at the age of 81. In 1985, Trippe was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Trippe was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1990. At Yale University in the School of Management there is a professorship entitled the "Juan Trippe Professor in the Practice of International Trade, Finance, and Business.”
