About

His first job was with Pan Am as an intern in the late 1970s and would later invent the airline’s first frequent flyer program called WorldPass. Over the course of his career, he has led companies such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Vail Resorts, and Norwegian Cruise Line. He is also board president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation.

Alfred Gilbert joined Pan Am in 1978 in New York as a Reservation & Rate Desk agent and later moved with Pan Am to San Francisco in 1981. He still resides in the Bay Area today. In 1985, he left Pan Am for a career in travel agency corporate sales, and worked over the course of his career for Thomas Cook, Carlson Wagonlit, BCD, and American Express. Alfred also volunteered for the Global Business Travel Association, serving as Program Director, Vice President, and President of local chapters Bay Area Business Travel Association (BABTA) and Silicon Valley Business Travel Association (SVBTA). Today, Alfred and his Australian Shepherd, Roman, are members of the SFO Wags Brigade, offering animal comfort therapy to travelers and airline employees at SFO International Airport.

His first job was with Pan Am in the 1980s as a customer service agent at the Delhi Airport. Mr. Kumria is an airline executive with over 34 years of experience and has worked for Kingfisher Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines.

“I’ve always been fascinated by commercial aviation. My first commercial flight was on a TWA 707 back in the 1060s. You may ask: How does this relate to PanAm? During this flight I noticed an ad in an in-flight magazine for PanAm. My thoughts at the time were, “This looks like a great airline to fly on.” Twenty-plus years later, in 1980, I married a PanAm employee, and my journey with the PaAm family began. What started out as a small collection of PanAm literature and kiddie wings blossomed into a collection of a wide selection of PaAm items. The scope of the collection ranges in time from 1927 to 1991 when PanAM closed its doors. Over this time period, I have cataloged and classified a broad range of items, including: insignia, uniforms, safety cards, airtransport labels, first flight covers, in-flight service items (galley carts, china, eating/serving utensils, posters and art work, plus many other items too numerous to mention. Additionally, during this time period, I promoted and operated one of the regional airline memorabilia shows (The Newark Airline Memorabilia Show). This show operated over 10 years and hosted 100 tables, and ~600 visitors. I have been interviewed by four news agencies at a various memorabilia shows. Since the demise of PanAm, I have remained in contact and am friends with many PanAm-ers. My commitment to PanAm has and is maintaining the historical relevance of this great company.”

Adjunct Professor at the University Maryland Global Campus and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster and Emirates Aviation University. Frequent passenger on Pan Am, first on a DC-6B in 1958 and last on a Boeing 747 in 1991.

John’s passion for aviation began as a three-year-old when his family would spend a few hours on many Sunday afternoons watching airplanes do what they normally do at O’Hare. In fact, his mother learned how to drive on the underutilized taxiways at that time. Two weeks after graduating from high school in 1966, he began working for Continental Airlines at O’Hare in terminal operations. His baptism into the fast-paced world of commercial aviation was working all forty-two days of the Great Airline Strike during that summer. He left the industry for several months trying out his college major, architecture, and decided to return to aviation. Pan Am was hiring cargo station service agents at O’Hare. He applied and for the next twenty-one years he worked in various capacities in cargo service and sales and passenger service and sales. He also was tasked with several special assignments. He received the 1981 President’s Sales Award for cargo sales. After Pan Am’s demise he worked for Olympic Airways in passenger sales for nineteen years. He also was tasked with several special assignments thanks to his Pan Am experience. After Olympic privatized, he worked as an aircraft broker for four years specializing in the sale of Cessna aircraft and “Jurassic” airliners. He is currently retired and his passion for aviation continues as a Pan Am historian, archivist and memorabilia collector. He is also a general aviation pilot.

Nancy grew up in the world of Pan Am with her father having been a Captain. She became a Flight AttendPan Am, based in Miami and New York, then accepted a corporate sales position for Pan Am in Atlanta. Nancy has also worked for IBM as a Major Meetings Manager and is currently the President of World Wings International, Inc., the philanthropic global organization of former Pan Am Flight Attendants.

Years With Pan Am: 1958-1962; Ticket Agent “I come from a Pan Am Family dating back to the mid-1930’s, with four members of my family working for the airline, myself included. I had a long Intelligence career in the Navy and was the Director of Naval Intelligence, Director of the National Security Agency and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence and the CIA. Now mostly retired, doing part-time aviation history, I am convinced there are still fascinating and compelling Pan Am stories yet to be told and the PAMF is the perfect platform to pursue these stories.”