Fly this cowboy to the moon
It was 1962 and our nation was on course to send men to the moon. A strategic problem of returning the giant Saturn rocket where it was recovered in the Pacific Ocean to NASA in Florida by ground transportation was expensive and consumed a lot of time. This threatened our progress in beating Russia to a moon landing.
Jack Conroy, a retired Air Force pilot, conceived the idea to convert a then obsolete conventional prop driven Stratocruiser/Stratoliner into a cargo plane to ferry the Saturn back to Florida by air.
Conroy was successful in finding a few individual investors who shared his vision. However, halfway through the conversion process being done by On Mark at the Van Nuys airport, he hit the proverbial “brick wall!”
His investors had exhausted their commitments, On Mark had stopped work for nonpayment and Conroy’s enterprise was a serious candidate for bankruptcy.
I was a recent USC law school graduate who was admitted to the State
Bar June 6, 1961 (my 29th birthday), married with three children. I couldn’t afford to work as an employee for $450 a month!
My law partner, Norton Karno, (he was also a CPA), began the difficult challenge to build a client base and support our families on the legal services rate of $20 to $30 an hour!
My sister Elynor had established an aerial crop-dusting business in Bakersfield, and was highly regarded as a woman in a “man’s business.”
She had been approached by Conroy as a potential investor, and referred him to me for my recommendation.
Although I had very limited actual experience as a practicing lawyer, I was aware of state and federal securities law issues that I mentioned to Conroy and recommended that he retain an experienced attorney when I told him I wouldn’t recommend the investment.
A couple of months later, I received a call from Conroy asking me to represent him and his company, Aerospacelines.
I explained to him that although I was aware of some of his problems, I didn’t feel I had the experience necessary to undertake his representation. Conroy said he was OK with my inexperience, because he couldn’t pay me anyhow!
We worked out a deferred-payment arrangement, and I successfully resolved his legal issues and worked out a payment arrangement with On Mark to finish the remodel of the plane.
I then referred him to another lawyer I knew who had success in obtaining financing for new companies.
A year or two later, the “guppy” by Aerospacelines was emblazoned on the cover of Life.
Conroy developed another even larger plane that was called the “Super Guppy!” Both looked like flying whales.
Fortunately, Conroy’s vision became a significant contribution to America’s challenge to put the first humans on the moon.
I take pride in knowing that a one time cowboy from Bakersfield helped accomplish America’s success in the space race!