Air Ace Dies

One of Dartmouth's and America's heroes of the first World War, W. T. Ponder 'l7, died quietly in a hotel room in Amarillo, Tex., last month after surviving many a brush with death in a lifetime of flying. Credited with 11 German planes as a member of the Lafayette Escadrille of the French Air Force and later with American 103 rd Squadron, Captain Ponder was rated by many " as second to the famed Eddie Rickenbacker.

After the war Ponder went into commercial aviation in his native Southwest and at the time of his death had his own company, Ponder Aircraft Sales, with headquarters in San Angelo, Texas.