Bill Shurley - 80th birthday bash

At Marfa in far west Texas, near the Davis Mountains and Big Bend
National Park, lives a legendary rodeo rider, rancher, soaring pilot,
towpilot named Bill Shurley. He has been an enthusiastic supporter of
soaring since the first contests at Marfa in the mid 1960's, and was
very encouraging to me to re-establish soaring at Marfa.

Bill Shurley organized the two trans-continental soaring safari's from
the US - Mexico border north to the US - Canada border, via Marfa and
up the Rockies. (He wants me to organize a third expedition sometime.)
I have videotape of Bill towing four of those sailplanes simultaneously
with his custom built Cessna AgWagon. That's the same AgWagon that he
and hunting pal Chuck Yeager mounted a gunsight along with two shotguns
on the struts to efficiently hunt coyotes that were killing the calves
in Bill's cattle herd on his huge ranch south of Marfa. Bill has a
hundred tall tales from his flying career, and was a close personal
friend of many astronauts, including the original Mercury 7.

Bill's health ain't what it used to be. The good old boys, just keep
getting - older. (I suppose no faster than the rest of us!)

Anyhow, his family is throwing Bill a party this week and if you would
like to send him a Happy 80th Birthday greeting, please email it to


I'll see that your messages are relayed to Bill. He will sure
appreciate it.

Thanks,

Burt
Marfa, Texas USA