Talton Higbee Embry (May 17, 1897 – 1946) was an American

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

enthusiast who co-founded the company leading to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Early life and family

Embry was born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

where he started his education. He attended Asheville School in Asheville,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. While Embry was trying to start a bus company in Cincinnati he met early aviator

John Paul Riddle John Paul Riddle (May 19, 1901 – April 6, 1989) was an American pilot and aviation pioneer, best known for training Allied air crews in WW2 and co-founding what later became Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). He also founded an airlin ...

, who had landed at the local polo field. Riddle offered him a plane ride, and from then on Embry was hooked on aviation. After parting ways with Riddle in 1939, he moved to California in 1941. Five years later, in 1946, Embry died of a heart attack. He married Mary Elizabeth Bennett in June 1919.

Career

Two years after meeting, T. Higbee Embry and friend,

, formed the Embry-Riddle Company on December 17, 1925 at Lunken Airport in

. The company was financed by Embry and he served as company president, and the two began to sell Waco Aircraft. In the spring of 1926, the Embry-Riddle Company opened the Embry-Riddle Flying School. The Embry-Riddle Company was merged with the Aviation Corporation (AVCO) of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

in 1929. AVCO phased out the Embry-Riddle Flying School in the fall of 1930. Shortly after, AVCO became American Airways (the predecessor of

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

), and the Embry-Riddle Company was gone.

References

External links

The T. Higbee Embry Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Embry, T. Higbee American aviation businesspeople 1897 births 1946 deaths Businesspeople from Cincinnati Aviators from Ohio Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University 20th-century American businesspeople