Man Donating $7.5 Million to Aerospace Academy

Monday, April 19, 2010

LAKELAND | It was a simple question.

Multi millionaire James Ray from Naples was touring the cramped Central Florida Aerospace Academy at Sun ‘n Fun in February when he asked local school officials: ‘What can I do to help?’

Chad Smith, assistant principal at Kathleen High School, who oversees the academy, showed Ray some drawings of ideas for a new building.

Ray, 86, turned to his partners.

‘I want to do this for them,’ Ray said.

Smith was stunned. ‘I actually had to come back to my office and sit down,’ Smith said.

On Thursday, the former World War II bomber pilot and successful businessman made public his plans to donate $7.5 million for a three-story building to house the academy at Sun ‘n Fun.

The new building will expand enrollment from 120 students to 500 and will allow them to actually fly planes, Smith said.

Gail McKinzie, superintendent of Polk County Schools, said she and district officials always talked about how they were going to improve facilities.

‘These things don’t happen very often,’ McKinzie said.

The career academy, one of 30 in Polk County for grades 9-12, is associated with Kathleen High School in North Lakeland but anyone in the county can apply at www.flycfaa.com.

Ray is donating the money through a non profit organization called the Aviation Education Foundation. The donation comes with another $500,000 to help furnish and equip the building and a $100,000 airplane to help students learn to fly in a new flight academy.

Ray is a pilot with 70 years of flying experience. He flew B-17 Flying Fortress bombers during World War II and later became a successful rancher, oil man and real estate developer. Ray has invested in more than 300 high-tech aerospace and computer ventures, including Compaq Computer Corp. and Cirrus Design, according to a University of North Dakota article about him. Ray has donated millions of dollars to the college.

He had wanted to open a flight academy at several other locations in the United States before coming to Polk.

‘We tried to do something, but it never worked,’ Ray said.

‘There was just a lot of red tape,’ said his partner, Tom Arnot.

Ray said the public partnership with the district and Sun ‘n Fun helped him make the decision. Sun ‘n Fun will lease the building to the school district for 25 years, during which time the money actually will go into a foundation for the academy students.

Ray is familiar with Sun ‘n Fun. He and Arnot are lead investors in the Hilton Garden Inn near the airport, one of four inns they own in the United States.

Ray has flown into Lakeland Linder Regional Airport but never has participated in Sun ‘n Fun.

Wearing sunglasses, a dress shirt and a tie with airplanes, Ray talked with academy students Thursday morning.

He told Austin Holt, 16, a 10th-grader, that he could be one of the first graduates from the school once the new building has been completed.

Holt wants to be an aeronautical engineer.

‘I want to test new designs of airplanes,’ the straight-A student said.

The new building will have a media center, a cafeteria and an engineering lab.

Ninth-grader Phillip Herrington plans to pilot a plane in a year.

‘I want to be a naval aviator,’ said Herrington, 15. ‘When I was 5, I watched ëTop Gun’ and it sparked this desire to fly like that.’

For more information, contact John Chambliss at The Ledger