Lowenstein gives keynote address for PBY air museum

Business professor Henry Lowenstein recently delivered the keynote address for the summer meeting of the PBY Naval Air Museum Foundation on Whidbey Island in the state of Washington. Lowenstein is the author of "The Rescue Man: A 'Snafu Snatching' Rescue Pilot’s Extraordinary Journey Through World War II," published in 2016. The book tells the story of Bud Hayes, a World War II Army Air Force pilot who was an uncle of Lowenstein’s wife Carla. Hayes was killed in 1945 when his PBY Catalina flying boat crashed off the coast of the Philippines.

Lowenstein’s presentation was titled “PBY: The Man and the Machine,” which focused on the aircraft’s role in saving lives in WWII. The PBY Catalina was designed primarily for patrol, sea rescue missions, anti-submarine warfare and strafing.

Lowenstein, a former dean of the Wall College of Business, says that the experience was particularly meaningful to him because it gave him the opportunity to meet a 94-year-old Navy veteran PBY flight engineer. Lowenstein also boarded the museum’s display PBY aircraft that is now being renovated.

"In the cockpit, one was emotional on seeing the challenges these 21-year-old young men had to face while flying into danger, and on remembering those like Bud Hayes did not return."