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Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
At around 3:30 AM Monday morning, Jack Kosko passed. Jack ran a restoration hangar in Fawn Grove, PA. Between 1997 and 2016, they restored two TBM Avengers, one for the Mid Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, PA and the other for the CAF's Capital Wing in Culpeper, VA. They also did partial restorations of two Cessna Bobcats (a.k.a Bamboo Bombers). Jack gave me my start in aviation just over 5 years ago -- I was literally a stranger walking in off the street. But, if I loved airplanes as much as they did and was willing to push up my sleeves and join in, I was in. Jack flew as a radioman in a TBM during the war off the USS Langley in VT-23 during 1945, with strikes on Japan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The plane he flew on was credited with giving the light cruiser Yahagi it's "coup de grace" when it sortied with the battleship Yamato on April 6, 1945.
Jack indirectly influenced me getting an LBC. If it wasn't for the work I was doing up at the hangar, I may not have had the gumption to take on a project like the Sprite. Jack was also a British Car guy, although most of his collection were of pre World War II Daimlers and Rolls Royces. He does still have a mid-60s Daimler in the garage at his house. At one point, his car collection swelled to 18 cars.
Jack was 91, and lived a very successful life by any way you want to measure that term. He was truly a unique character. As much of an honor as it was to be able to work alongside him, it was an even greater honor to call him a friend. I don't mourn for him so much as I mourn for the rest of us, as our world is that much lesser of a place without him.
Jack in his Navy days:
DSC_0064a by David Cohen, on Flickr
Jack in 2012 checking over the progress of the CAF Avenger:
DSC_0016 by David Cohen, on Flickr
This was taken in March when Jack entered hospice. This was most of his final group of volunteers at the hangar.
DSC_0044a by David Cohen, on Flickr
Jack with his wife Rubye and their Daimler (I believe that's what it is...my pre-World War II car recognition skills are not good). Jack and Rubye were married for 67 years when he passed. She was as crazy about him as she was when they first met.
DSC_0004 by David Cohen, on Flickr
Tomorrow, Jack will be laid to rest in the small church cemetery near where he lived in Granite, Maryland. I don't think the world will ever see the likes of someone like Jack again, or a place that was a special as his hangar in Fawn Grove. I'm glad I got a chance to know him for even the relatively short amount of time that I did.
Jack indirectly influenced me getting an LBC. If it wasn't for the work I was doing up at the hangar, I may not have had the gumption to take on a project like the Sprite. Jack was also a British Car guy, although most of his collection were of pre World War II Daimlers and Rolls Royces. He does still have a mid-60s Daimler in the garage at his house. At one point, his car collection swelled to 18 cars.
Jack was 91, and lived a very successful life by any way you want to measure that term. He was truly a unique character. As much of an honor as it was to be able to work alongside him, it was an even greater honor to call him a friend. I don't mourn for him so much as I mourn for the rest of us, as our world is that much lesser of a place without him.
Jack in his Navy days:
DSC_0064a by David Cohen, on FlickrJack in 2012 checking over the progress of the CAF Avenger:
DSC_0016 by David Cohen, on FlickrThis was taken in March when Jack entered hospice. This was most of his final group of volunteers at the hangar.
DSC_0044a by David Cohen, on FlickrJack with his wife Rubye and their Daimler (I believe that's what it is...my pre-World War II car recognition skills are not good). Jack and Rubye were married for 67 years when he passed. She was as crazy about him as she was when they first met.
DSC_0004 by David Cohen, on FlickrTomorrow, Jack will be laid to rest in the small church cemetery near where he lived in Granite, Maryland. I don't think the world will ever see the likes of someone like Jack again, or a place that was a special as his hangar in Fawn Grove. I'm glad I got a chance to know him for even the relatively short amount of time that I did.
