Making a planned gift to Embry-Riddle provides a powerful opportunity to honor those you love while inspiring future generations to pursue their dreams of flight. Leslie Gibson (’98) is doing just that with her planned gift to create scholarships for aviation students at Embry-Riddle.
The alumna, pilot, entrepreneur and former adjunct professor shares her personal journey below on why she chose a planned gift to celebrate her late husband’s legacy as a pilot and flight instructor to generations of aviators:
The absolute joy of Bill Gibson’s life was flying, and for 50 years he flew the skies in everything from Piper Cubs to seaplanes and from helicopters to Learjets without a single accident or incident. He served the aviation community in countless ways, such as FAA Designated Examiner, Aviation Safety Counselor and Gold Seal Flight Instructor. Bill taught his students the merits of meticulous flight planning and preparation for contingencies. He also prided himself in providing smooth flights that soothed even the most anxious passengers with well-informed decisions, well-chosen routes and landings that gently kissed the ground.
Bill and I founded a company that eventually became the busy FBO [Fixed-Base Operator] and air charter operation at the airport in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where we had both learned to fly. As Bill’s wife, co-pilot and partner in Gibson Aviation, I have strongly considered his legacy since he passed away in 2021. I feel he contributed significantly to the aviation world by passing along his safety-oriented philosophy as a flight instructor to hundreds of students and as chief pilot for dozens of our Part 135 Air Taxi pilots who are now flying for major airlines.
I developed a relationship with Embry-Riddle as an alumna with a Professional Aeronautics degree and, after years of flying for our company as a charter pilot and flight instructor, I served Embry-Riddle for five years as an adjunct professor in Daytona Beach, teaching Aviation Literature and Aeronautical Science. My connection with the university was deepened when I inherited the trusteeship of an Embry-Riddle scholarship endowment fund from the late Professor Emeritus Paul Braim, and I was touched by letters from grateful students whose studies were made possible by their scholarships.
Since marrying my flight instructor in 1976, I spent thousands of hours of flying with Bill in the sky where he most loved to be. I think it is a fitting legacy of our flying careers to subsidize the quality education of young people at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University who are pursuing the spirit and beauty of flight.