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Piedmont Silver Eagles Documenting Piedmont Airlines History
This collection contains nearly
10,000 pictures of Piedmont Airlines Corporate & Employee History
from 1965 thru the 1980’s. The photographs were originally taken
by the late William Harper Ray, Sr. and his son Bill Ray. Both were photographers
for the Winston Salem Journal and Sentinel. Through out the Piedmont years
both father and son pictorially documented every piece of Piedmont Corporate
and Employee history.
There is little doubt of their love for Piedmont Airlines, evident in
this remarkable collection. Upon Bill Ray’s death in April of 2008;
the pictures were released to the Piedmont Silver Eagles Charitable Funds.
The negatives for all the pictures were contained in nine Kodak Tin Canisters all separately dated. It was quiet a challenge to find someone to develop this special commercial film from over 40 years ago. Wolf Camera said they could do the job, but it would take 45 days to scan each picture at a high resolution so the pictures could be used in a documentary. The pictures were then stored on CD’s. The originals of the film are now deeded to, and stored in a fire proof vault with the State of North Carolina.
The 10,000 pictures were reviewed and narrowed down to 2,500 to represent a pictorial representation of the Piedmont Airlines story. During the review process we tried to identify as many people and events as possible, but we need YOUR help in identifying all the events and personnel. The Piedmont Silver Eagles do not guarantee the authenticity or origin of these pictures. We have tried with due diligence to identify the people in these photos however we do not guarantee the names of the individuals.
All of the group pictures with Mr. Tom Davis are Service Pin Luncheons; employees were present from all stations for their service pins and the subsequent luncheons. Mr. Davis has to be the most photographed man in Aviation History, according to Capt. Zeke Saunders, “Tom loved meeting and giving the Service Pins out to the employees”. Many of these pictures have not ever been seen, so we hope you enjoy this walk through Piedmont History, compliments to you from the Piedmont Silver Eagles.
If you can identify someone in the “Ray Collection” you may e-mail piedmontpictures@gmail.com with their name, position with the Company if known, and position in the picture (collection name and picture number). We have numbered each picture for your convenience. We will then update the names on the PSE Website.
The “Ray Collection” is copyrighted, you may copy, e-mail, or conventional/standard mail, any of the pictures in the “Ray Collection”, although we do ask that you receive permission prior to using the pictures in any publications or research. You may e-mail piedmontpictures@gmail.com with any requests.
The Piedmont family is very fortunate to have received these photos. We would like to thank the Ray Family, Betsy Allen/former head of PI Public Relations/editor Piedmonitor, and Capt. Zeke Saunders for helping to bring these pictures forward for everyone.
Respectfully,
Capt. Paul S. Snell
Historian
Piedmont Silver Eagles, Inc.