Written by AMA Staff (12/1974, 01/1975); Edited & Formatted by JS (08/2010)
50,000 AMA Member for 1974
This milestone in AMA membership statistics was reached on July 23 when the application by Robert A. Lockwood of Napa, Calif., was processed at AMA HQ. He’s been sent a special certificate as a memento of the occasion.
At the end of August 561,649 members had signed up. With another thousand or so likely to join before the 1974 issuing year ends at the end of September (applicants after that time are issued 1975 membership) it seems that the all-time record for 1974 will be about 53,000. The following was published in the AMA News section of American Aircraft Modeler, January 1975 issue.
50,000 AMA Member Actually is an Old-Timer
These pages in the December issue told that Robert A. Lockwood, Napa, California, was recorded by AMA Headquarters on July 23 as being the 50,000th member for 1974 – a milestone figure which deserves more than passing mention. We’d like you to meet this man. In responding to an inquiry for information, Lockwood says that he, like thousands of others, first built the Baby ROG designed by Merrill Hamburg and published in American Boy magazine. This probably was in the early ‘30s. Marine Corps service in WWII, raising a family and then living in Mexico all joined forces to put a temporary halt to his modeling, but before this, he recalls having built a Bay Ridge Models Mike with an Ohlsson .23 engine, which he still has. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lockwood spent his early life in Pelham, New York. In Mexico, he was president and general manager of Distribudora de Impresos, S.A., from which he presently is retired, a wholesale distributor of English language magazines, newspapers and books. He notes that included among the titles were Flying Models, Model Airplane News, American Aircraft Modeler, and R/C Modeler. He and his wife, Ellen, are parents of two grownup boys, Robert and Leigh. A health problem slowed down Lockwood, age 58, about eight years ago; with many of his familiar activities being curtailed, this was a perfect time to rediscover modeling. “The challenge of RC proved fascinating,” he said, “and I’ve been hooked ever since.” His joining of AMA was to help establish contact with nearby flyers after having been out of the country for so many years.
“Today I am a fair-to-poor builder and a calamity as a pilot,” Lockwood wrote. “What I build generally flies well enough until the instructor hands me the transmitter.” He hopes that retirement will provide the time to improve his building and piloting techniques, and we’re almost willing to bet that he exaggerates a bit.
We can’t help but be pleased by some of the comments Lockwood made in a letter to Executive Director John Worth: “I think that congratulations are due to you and the AMA for the growth in membership. Milestones or not, healthy growth in membership is a positive indication of fulfillment of a genuine need. Modeling has been good for me, and the friendly help that I have received must be paid back in some way.”
As a sidelight, AMA HQ closed out its membership books for 1974 showing an all-time high total – 52,452!
This page is a text transcription of the original document, made automatically and may contain errors. .