Greg Anderson

Greg, the oldest of five children, grew up in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He fondly recalls Sunday afternoon family car rides that often ended at the Waukesha County Airport fence to watch airplanes take-off and land. In 1968, Anderson received an appointment to the Air Force Academy.

Following graduation and pilot training, Lieutenant Anderson was assigned to the Strategic Air Command’s 380th Bomb Wing at Plattsburgh AFB, New York. Flying the Boeing KC-135 “Stratotanker”, first as Copilot then as Aircraft Commander, Greg flew numerous worldwide missions, including the Mayaguez Rescue Operation, called the “last Battle of Vietnam.”

Captain Anderson left the Air Force and returned home to Wisconsin in 1979. Greg served for three years as Vice President with the Wausau Area Chamber of Commerce, followed by a stint as Office Administrator and Liaison to Local Governments for Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus. In that role, Greg attended his first EAA Fly-in Convention, now EAA AirVenture.

The next year, 1983, Anderson joined EAA as Director of Development, rising to Vice President of Development and finally Executive Vice President of the EAA Aviation Foundation. In his 21 years with EAA, Greg helped lead the Wings on Dreams Capital Campaign to open the EAA’s Headquarters and Museum in Oshkosh in1983. Subsequent expansions included Pioneer Airport, the Eagle Hangar, Air Academy Lodge, Leadership Center, Compass Hill and the EAA Memorial Wall.

In 1992, Greg proposed and led development of the world’s largest youth aviation initiative. The EAA Young Eagles Program engaged 40,000 volunteer pilots to fire the imagination of one million young lives with a flight experience by 2003. The program continues today.

In April 2004, Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver recruited Greg to become their President and CEO. He led an expansion of the museum to include a satellite aerospace education campus at Centennial Airport called Exploration of Flight.

Anderson remains active in aviation since retiring from Wings Over the Rockies. He recently headed an effort to create a tribute to Tom Poberezny that included a life-size bronze sculpture, and he has published several articles in aviation media. A good day will find Greg writing an aviation story with a life lesson, talking up aviation to a Young Eagle or flying with one in his Lockwood Air Cam over Wisconsin’s lakes and forests.