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Donald Westfall,
Executive Director
In September 2004, Donald Westfall started as executive
director at the Mid-America Air Museum in Liberal, Kansas.
A native of Pensacola, Florida, he comes from an aviation
family. His father served for 29 years as a United States
Navy pilot and briefly operated a private flying school
in Jacksonville, Florida. From 1990 to 2002, Donald was
site manager of the Charles A. Lindbergh State Historic
Site in Little Falls, Minnesota. The property is administerd
by the Minnesota Historical Society and includes the boyhood
home of the world famous aviator plus a museum that tells
the story of his life.
Donald is a graduate
of Maine East High School (Park Ridge, Illinois). He attended
the University of Wyoming (Laramie, Wyoming) and the University
of Nevada (Reno, Nevada). Donald received a B.A. degree
in American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota
(Minneapolis, Minnesota) and a M.A. degree in History from
Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, Oklahoma). He has
been a teaching assistant in the History Department at OSU
and an intern for the Oklahoma Historical Society at the
State Museum in Oklahoma City and the Cherokee Strip Museum
in Perry. Donald then worked for OHS as curator of Fort
Gibson State Historic Site near Muskogee. After leaving
the Lindbergh Site, he held the position of executive director
of the Northfield Historical Society in Northfield, Minnesota.
Donald serves
as southwest area representative on the Kansas Museums Association
Board of Directors. He was recently appointed historian
of the Kansas Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. Donald also
reviews grant proposals for the Charles A. and Anne Morrow
Lindbergh Foundation. He is the author of the book Charles
A. Lindbergh House (1994) and has served as a content
consultant for several books and films. With respect to
his new location, Donald has said the museum's airplanes
constitute "a world-class collection. For a city the
size of Liberal, it's really remarkable."
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