| Sources |
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 22 Jan 2002.
Captain Marvin B. Hembel, age 93, died early Monday morning at East Georgia Regional Medical Center. A native of (Polk Township) West Bend, (Washington County), Wisconsin, was born to Henry and Lydia Schmidt Hembel. He attended Mayfield School near his family home and dairy farm, and graduated from West Bend High School in 1925. Following his graduation from Dodge County Teacher's College in 1928, he returned to Mayfield School's one room to teach 30 students, grades 1-8. He became intersted in flying in 1928 when a snow storm forced a mail plane to land in the schoolyard.
Mr. Hembel received his private pilot's license in 1928, organized the West Bend Aero Club in 1930, barnstormed with his brother, Lester, during the summers of 1933-1936. When the Hembels lost their farm in 1936, Marvin and Lester helped their parents move to a strawberry farm near Plant City, FL. Marvin continued his aviation education and expanded his involvement in flying by organizing several flying clubs in Georgia and South Carolina. He documented these years' activities in photographs, honoring a skill that he continued to use during the remainder of his career.
In 1939, he married Mary Cornelia (Connie) Martin of Albany, Georgia; ran a professional photography studio; and hired as manager of Bevo Howards' Hawthorne Flying Service at the Columbia, SC Municipal Airport; and -- in cooperation with the University of South Carolina -- began participating in a government pilot training program.
In December 1941 the Army took over the Columbia Airport and the flight-training program. In 1942, Mr. Hembel was commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps and began ferrying aircraft overseas and returning injured soldiers from military hospitals near their homes in the U.S. In 1943 he began instructing military pilots at the New Castle, DE, Airport.
By 1945, he had flown more than 100 missions delivering cargo over the ``Hump'' (the Himalayan Mountains) from India to China in support of the war effort in Asia. For this service, the now Captain Hembel received several air medals, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and later the China Medal (awarded by the Chinese government in appreciation of service).
When the war ended, Capt. Hembel returned to teaching -- this time at Saluda, S.C., High School -- until he was invited to join Piedmont Airlines (Winston-Salem, N.C.) as one of their first pilots. In 1955 he transferred to Piedmont's Knoxville, TN, base and later followed Piedmont to Atlanta. After retiring in 1968, he returned to Saluda, SC, to his brother Les's company, South Carolina Helicopters, earning his helicopter instructor's rating. Over the next 5 years he gave thousands of hours of instruction. He and Connie also rescued a decaying turn-of-the-century home in Guyton, GA, built a house overlooking St. Helena Sound near Beaufort, SC, and then re-retired, moving to Lakeland, FL -- not coincidentally home of the annual ``Sun&Fun'' fly-in.
In 1982, the Hembels moved to Statesboro, GA, near the home of both Mrs. Hembel's mother and their daughter, Caroline. During the following years, they entertained friends and family from all over the U.S. by introducing them to the sunny south. They moved to Willow Pond Retirement Center in 1998 and then into ``The Captain's Roost,'' a cottage adjacent to Caroline's Millen, GA, home where Capt. Hembel spent the last six months of his life. He is also a member of the Langston Chapel United Methodist Church.
Capt. Hembel is survived by his wife, Cornelia, who continues to live at the ``Captain's Roost'' in Millen, GA; three children, Caroline Himbel Beard of Millen, Judith Hembel Clabough of Maryville, and Marvin Martin Hembel of Bogart, GA; one brother, Lester F. Hembel of Saluda, SC; 6 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.
Funeral services for Capt. Hembel will be Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. in the chapel of Joiner-Anderson Funeral Home with Rev. Christie Bandy officiating. Burial will be in the Guyton Cemetery in Guyton, GA. Visitation will be held Wednesday from 12:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. at Joiner-Anderson Funeral Home. The family will receive guests at the Captain's Roost, 4959 East Old Savannah Road, Millen, GA. Pallbearers will be Lonnie Catinella, Perry Beard, Stephen Moore, James Hiatt, Orrin Hayes, Conner Walker, John Beard, Louis Cone and Martin Hembel. Honorary pallbearers will be Bill Chipman, PFC Allen Barnett and M.L. Miller. The family request that memorial contributions be made to the GSU Botanical Gardens, Martin-Cone Farm Project, PO Box 8039, Statesboro, GA 30460. Joiner-Anderson Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
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Abt 1909 - 2002 (~ 93 years)
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