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June 9, 2001 I have been in contact with Judy Polanich, the niece of Paul Kessler. She has stacks of photos and lots of documents. She has started working on a biography for Paul. Best calucation from Paul's logbook is that he flew 2,635 hours for CNAC and about 13,000 hours in his flying career. Please check back for updates. Unless otherwise stated, all the following photos and documents are courtesy of Judy Polanich the niece of Paul Kessler. Thanks Judy.  On board the S.S. Nellore, EAA Co. Mr. & Mrs. Kessler and Skip Adair
 Chuck Sharp, Pop Kessler, Maj Woods and Emil Scott while they are hiding among boulders during a Jap raid a short distance from Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong. Also, an unidentified male military(?) person in a white hat, at Sharp's left. Manila bombed that same day. A similar picture is in "Wings Over Asia, Vol IV", but this photo is courtesy of Judy Polanich, the niece of Paul "Pop" Kessler.  Chicago Daily Tribune Monday, December 15, 1941   Paul Kessler and Syd de Kantzow -- Anyone know what the medal is next to the wings?  Paul Kessler and Syd de Kantzow  Hal Sweet, Syd de Kantzow and Paul Kessler Flight Record  Letter of Recommendation   Maude and Paul Kessler 194?  That's Maude on the left - anyone know the other folks? August 18, 2010 Hi Tom, I have just found a record showing the date and city of Paul's death. I will copy and paste it below my response. Also, in reference to his date of birth, the June 1900 census lists it as March 1897 and his WW I Draft Registration card has his birthdate as 7 March 1897. However, both of these records are not official as the first one was orally given by a parent and the second one was self-reported. His obit indicates he was 52 which would make his birth year 1898 as he was two months shy of his birthday when he died 8 January 1951. I have a medal inside a box, similar to a jewelry box; the obituary was inside. My relation to Paul Kessler is not very direct, but may explain how I came in possession of these items. Paul had a brother name Charles, nicknamed Clarke. Clarke married my grandmother's sister. I do not know how my family ended up with the medal as we lived in California while my grandmother's family at that time lived in Chicago, as did Paul and his brother. My guess is that either Paul must have visited my family and somehow the medal was left behind or after his death, my grandmother brought it. I do not know (see scans below). Here is a scanned copy of the obit (see below). KL Aguilar   front of medal  back of medal   or would like to be added to the CNAC e-mail distribution list, please let the CNAC Web Editor, Tom Moore, know. Thanks! |
