BRUCE CLAPHAM
PILOT
DEN


I was leafing through the Obituary page today and although I can't supply any specific date info, 
on many of the pilot's listed there is no info at all. 
My memory is far from perfect but I thought I'd pass along what I remember about some of these guys. 
Bruce Clapham: Bruce fought a long battle with cancer. 
He bought a Army surplus Queen Air which was one he had flown while in the Army before FAL. 
He had it restored into good airworthy condition and donated it to the Combat Air Museum in Topeka KS before he died.
-H.A. "Frosty" Frost
(11/26/99)

That was super of Frosty to have gone through the names to recall some tidbits about some of the fellows who have Flown West.  
I will add a couple of comments to those pilots Frosty listed that I recall something special about.  
On the (unfortunately) long list, I will try to do that another time.
"Bruce had his Lymphoma in remission and was doing pretty well with hopes the cancer thing was behind him.  
He discovered a lump in his armpit and that was the end of it shortly afterwards.  
Butch Carr gave the Eulogy at the service.  
Not a dry eye in the crowd.  
I flew several flights with Bruce and found that both of us had the same mentor.  
Captain Ralph S. Johnson (Ex UAL Chief of Flight Test and the father of the stabilized approach) 
retired from UAL and had his own squadron of W.W.II bombers. 
Bruce flew Ralph's Lockheed PV-2's before going into the Army.  
Bruce's dad was a physician and aeromed in Cheyenne."
-Billy Walker
(11/26/99)

According to the Social Security Death Index,
B Clapham was born 29Aug1938 and died May1989, age 59.
-Jake Lamkins
(6/16/00)

Bruce T. Clapham  (deceased-wife Bonnie)	
1511 Ashcroft Drive	Longmont	CO	80501
-ESOP List
(5/27/03)

Do you have any address, telephone, or name of widow of Bruce Clapham, FAL pilot who died about 1990?  
He lived north of DEN in one of those towns on the way to Cheyenne.
-Joe Ferguson, FAL 0278
(11/6/05)

Email to Joe:
Ace's list shows Bruce dying 5/89
and the SSDI shows
B Clapham was born 29Aug1938 
and died May1989, age 59.
Wells Fargo had a list of folks they found for the ESOP lawsuit money.
On it I found
Bruce T. Clapham  (deceased-wife Bonnie)	
1511 Ashcroft Drive	
Longmont	CO	80501
Switchboard.com lists two Bonnie Claphams
Clapham, Bonnie
1131 Bradshaw Dr,
Florence, AL 35630-6273 
(256) 718-3485 
Clapham, Bonnie
13495 Kingswood Dr,
Omaha, NE 68144-3426 
(402) 334-2214 
-Jake Lamkins
(11/6/05)

Thanks a million. I phoned and neither of these are Bruce's widow.
Maybe she remarried. Maybe she has died.  Thanks anyhow.
-Joe Ferguson
(11/6/05) 

I have not found THE Bonnie yet--but the Bonnie in Omaha phoned me back. 
She had met Bruce at the Mayo Clinic in 1985 and remembered him. 
We talked for half an hour. Had a nice conversation. Thanks again.   
-Joe Ferguson
(11/6/05) 

Bruce was based in DEN for the most part.
Bruce was an Army pilot in VietNam.  He donated a RU-8F (Beech Queen 
Air), that he had flown there, to a museum in Kansas.  Both Bruce and I 
had the same mentor, Captain Ralph S. Johnson, former Chief Test Pilot 
for United who retired in 1947 to form his own aviation enterprises out 
of Cheyenne, Wyoming.  
-Bill Walker
(12/3/05)