Keith Galt Frazier was born 1 MAY 1933 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He died 1 FEB 1962 in Broomfield, Colorado. He was the son of Virgil Charles Frazier and Eleanor Louise Galt.
Keith Galt Frazier's wife was Elaine Janet Hellbusch. They were married 6 MAR 1955 in Omaha, Nebraska. Their 2 known children were Patti Lee Frazier and Terri Lee Frazier.
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2 Columbus men die when planes collide
An unusual aerial accident Thursday took the lives of four men, including Lloyd J. Williams, Jr. and Keith Frazier of Columbus, when two light planes collided about 10 miles northeast of Denver, Colorado.
United Press International reported that both single-engine aircraft were approaching the Jefferson County Airport for landings, when one overtook the other and sheared off its tail at about 200 feet above the ground The planes fell about 100 feet apart.
Say Williams Was Pilot
Killed in the first plane, a two-place Cessna were Dave Leitz, 35 and Aurora, Colorado flight instructor; and his student, Roger Wanda, 37, Littleton, Colorado, president of Missile Control Laboratory, Inc.
Mr. Williams was reportedly piloting the second craft, a four-place Piper Comanche, and Mr. Frazier was the only passenger. An investigator for the Civil Aeronautics Board at Denver, Arthur E. Neumann, said Wanda apparently was flying the Cessna.
Local reports indicated that Mr. Williams and Mr. Frazier took off from Grand Island (Nebraska) Thursday morning, exact time unknown here, enroute to Colorado. The plane had been chartered from a Grand Island leasing agency.
Saw Collision
Jack W. Prange, 31, of Aurora, Colorado, a maintenance man for Kensair Corp. at the Jefferson County Airport saw the collision between the two planes.
"Both planes were on the final approach with the faster Comanche behind the Cessna," Prange said. "They were approximately at the same altitude. . . when the Comanche ran into the tail of the Cessna."
He said he was about a mile away from the crash scene, and did not hear the aircraft hit the ground. Neither plane burned.
A crane was employed to remove the twisted wreckage before the bodies of the Columbus men could be removed.
Mr. Williams, 35, was chief structural engineer for the Behlen Manufacturing Company and had been associated with the firm since 1957. A native of Omaha, he was a graduate of South High School and the University of Nebraska college of engineering. He is survived by his wife and three children.
Came Here in 1960
Mr, Frazier, 28, married and the father of two children, had lived in Omaha and Grand Island before coming to Columbus in January of 1960. He was serving as manager of the Columbus airport and was owner of Flight, Inc. He had been an instructor for approximately four years.
Funeral services for Mr. Williams will be held at 9 a.m. Monday at the McKown Funeral chapel. A full obituary appears elsewhere in today's Telegram.
The services for Mr. Frazier are tentatively scheduled for Monday afternoon with the Gass Funeral Home in charge.
Ref: Columbus Daily Telegram February 1962
Funeral services for Keith Frazier on Monday
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at Trinity Lutheran church for Columbus airport manager Keith G. Frazier, 28, victim of a two-plane crash Thursday in Colorado.
The Rev. J. N. Slice, pastor of Trinity Lutheran, will officiate at the church service and the Rev. J. Alan Justad, Methodist pastor, will conduct the graveside rites in Roselawn Memorial cemetery.
Friends may pay their respects at the Gass funeral home from 1 p.m. Sunday until noon Monday or at the church between 1 and 2 p.m. Monday.
Mr. Frazier, manager of the local airport since January, 1960, was also owner ofFlight, Inc. He had been an instructor for approximately four years.
Before coming to Columbus he was with Exec Air Inc., in Grand Island as chief pilot and salesman, and previously was with United Airlines in Omaha for four years. He also served briefly in the Air Force.
He was born in Lincoln (Nebraska) May 1, 1933, the son of Virgil C. and Eleanor Galt Frazier, and received his education in Macedonia, Iowa.
Mr. Frazier was a member of the Junior and Senior Chambers of Commerce, and the Elks, Eagles and Masonic Lodges.
On March 6, 1955 at Omaha he married Elaine Hellbusch of Omaha, who survives him.
Also surviving are two daughters, Patti Lee, 5, and Terri Lee, 6 months; his father, Virgil C. of Omaha; his mother, Mrs. Eleanor Schultz, and two half-brothers, Duane and Randy Schultz of Macedonia, Iowa; two grandmothers, Mrs. Ethel Frazier of Norfolk, VA, and Mrs. R. P. Galt of Zephyrhills, Fla.
Ref: Columbus Daily Telegram
Card of Thanks
At times since the very sudden and unexpected death of our dear husband and father, the late Keith G. Frazier, the burden of our grief has seemed greater than we could bear, but always our sorrow has been in a measure lightened by the wealth of sympathy accorded by friends and neighbors and indeed the entire community. May we now ask that each offer of kindness in our behalf and each speaker of condolence may truly believe that we are grateful and hope that it may reach the eye of all for whom it is intended.
Mrs. Keith Frazier & family
Ref: Columbus Daily Telegram
Control Tower Sought For Jefferson Airport
Golden - Chester Hoskinson, chairman of the Jefferson County commissioners, is to fly to Washington, D.C., Monday in an effort to get a federal air traffic control tower for the county airport near Broomfield.
Hoskinson said W. H. Huntsbarger, airport manager , is to accompany him for conferences with Sens. Gordon Allott and Peter Dominick, Rep. Donald Brotzman and Federal Aviation Agency officials.
Huntsbarger said the need for an air traffic control tower increases almost daily, especially since a new $323,000, 3,600 foot crosswind runway was opened last week.
PAVING PROJECT
The main runway, 6,000 feet long, is to be paved this summer at a cost of more than $300,000. The county has more than $2 million invested in the field and an adjacent 640-acre industrial park which is undeveloped because of insufficient water.
Huntsbarger said more than $500,000 has been invested at the airport by private enterprise. More than 160 planes are now based there, he said.
G. G. Pettibone, FAA air traffic supervisor in Denver, said the field is in competition for a tower with other airports meeting the basic 2,000 itinerant aircraft operations a month.
The Jeffco field is barely meeting that requirement, but activity from homebased and transient aircraft is expected to top 100,000 this year, according to Huntsbarger.
AT FAA EXPENSE
If the tower is authorized, the FAA will build the structure at its own expense, Pettibone said. The agency has nearly $500,000 invested in the field now and has been asked to put $163,870 into paving the main runway this summer, the airport manager said.
In 1962, county officials predicted lightweight jet aircraft eventually would be using the field. If a tower is obtained, that would come soon, Huntsbarger predicted.
Without a tower it will be hazardous to use both runways simultaneously. From the north leg of the crosswind runway it is impossible to see the east leg of the main runway and there is a constant threat of a collision where the two runways cross.
Lack of air traffic control was blamed in part for the Feb. 1, 1962, mid-air collision of two planes trying to land at the field. Four persons died.
Ref: The Denver Post, Wed., April 22, 1964
Jefferson Leases Site for Sky Traffic Tower
The Jefferson County commissioners this week aproved a lease which will permit construction of an air traffic control tower at the county airport near Broomfield to begin next month.
The $384,000 structure will be erected under the direction of the Federal Aviation Agency and is to be operative within a year.
Clarence Steen, assistant chief of airways facilities for the FAA in Denver, said a 45-day contract to place the foundation for the 49-foot high tower will begin in November.
The tower will be just east of the airport administration building on a triangle of land in the center of the auto turn-around area, according to Bill Huntsbarger, airport manager.
The 20-year lease requires a total payment of $1, a token amount to make the contract legal.
The tower, expedited by Rep. Roy McVicker, D-Colo., and Sen. Gordon Allott, R-Colo., is one of three major building projects now under way at the airport.
A $45,000 crash and rescue building is under contruction, and the U. S. Forest Service is working on a base for aerial forest fire fighters. In conjunction with these projects a county industrial park is being developed adjacent to the airport.
The steel erection is to be completed by March when a seven-month contract to finish the building will begin,. The FAA will install the electronic equipment.
Steen said the present plan is to operate the tower 16 hours daily on visual flight rules. There will be about four FAA employees per shift at the tower.
The tower will offer local traffic and ground control direction and it will have a "hot line" to Stapleton International Airport's control tower. The Jeffco facility will not have radar initially, Steen said. A direct line will connect the tower with theAir Route Traffic Control Center at Longmont where radar and computers keep air traffic under constant surveillance.
County Commissioners Chet Hoskinson, Joe Lewis and John Jump flew to Washington last May to appeal for the tower. They expressed satisfaction at seeing the project finally getting under way.
More than 160 planes are based at the field and traffic movements exceed 3,000 a month by transient aircraft alone. The field features two runways, one 6,000 feet long and one 3,600 feet.
Jefferson County has some $2 million invested in the facility and the FAA has one of its regional offices at the field. In the past the FAA has set up a temporary tower to direct traffic at peak congestion periods.
Lack of air traffic control as partly to blame for the air collision of two light planes on Feb. 1, 1962. Four persons died.
Steen said pilots "have quite a problem with small aircraft flitting around out there because the visibility against the mountins makes sightings difficult."
The county owns 640 acres adjacent to the field which would permit its expansion. That land is now designated for industrial development.
"They need it (the tower) out there and I'm real happy to see it going in," Steen said.
Ref: The Denver Post
Wednesday, October 6, 1965
('This is a good thing!", says Elaine Frazier, wife of Keith Frazier)
