Roger Hougham
On Tuesday, July 23, 2024, Lewis University’s Aviation and Transportation Department experienced a “blast from the past!” Roger Hougham, who turned 95 years old in August, returned to campus to revisit his aviation roots. Hougham attended Lewis from 1954 to 1955 and served as a flight instructor at Lewis from 1955 to 1956. He and his friends, Bill Arbogast (who also attended Lewis and served as a Certified Flight Instructor in the 50’s), and Doug Reeves, all with the Prairie Aviation Museum in Bloomington, Illinois, made the trip to Lewis in honor of Roger’s upcoming birthday. Roger Hougham served in the United States Marines Corps in air traffic control in the early 50’s. He earned single-engine certification during that time. He then spent a year as an aviation student at Lewis, and then a year as a flight instructor. In 1956, he joined Delta Airlines. Upon his retirement from Delta in 1989, he had flown more than 27,000 hours both domestically and...