Penn College News

Still-Employed Octogenarian Proves 'the Sky's the Limit'

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

The visitor stops by the sheet-metal shop with faculty member Thomas D. Inman.The alumnus invented, manufactured and marketed slide-in adapters to retrofit new radios in older aircraft, a cost-saving innovation that he demonstrated for students.Haubert alights a twin-engine Dassault Falcon 20 business jet donated to Penn College during the Spring 2015 semester. Impressed by the college's fleet of instructional aircraft, including a Boeing 727 parked outside the aviation campus at the Williamsport Regional Airport, he marveled that "We worked on T-33s!" (A reference to a postwar trainer jet manufactured by Lockheed.)Proudly pointing out a slideshow version of his younger self, kneeling at the airportHaubert swaps stories with interested students and faculty.Paul W. Haubert, a 1960 graduate of Penn College forerunner Williamsport Technical Institute, regaled a classroom audience with tales from his storied (and ongoing) career during a recent visit to the Lumley Aviation Center. The 83-year-old alumnus – who operates an avionics repair shop at New Cumberland's Capital City Airport with his son Wayne – took students and faculty on a top-flight reminiscence of his life in aircraft maintenance. And what a life it's been! He received his certificate at WTI after an honorable discharge from the Air Force and went on to a series of aviation-related adventures starting with American Airlines at New York's Idlewild Airport and winding through a number of mechanical, manufacturing and management positions that continue to this day. Haubert was treated to a tour of the Montoursville facility with Thomas D. Inman, associate professor of aviation, and enjoyed lunch at the college's Le Jeune Chef Restaurant with Kimberly R. Cassel, director of alumni relations, and Rhonda S. Walker, alumni relations specialist.