Scholarship to Help Pierpont Aviation Maintenance Students Created in Honor of Angelo Koukoulis
By Chris Johnson on June 23, 2024
The name Koukoulis is synonymous with the origins, expansions and successes of the North Central West Virginia Airport and the general aviation footprint in the area.
Last week at Pierpont’s National Aerospace Education Center in Bridgeport, an event took place to make sure the name Koukoulis will be linked to the future as well.
The Pierpont Foundation has established a new scholarship in memory of aviation pioneer Angelo Koukoulis that will be used to help aviation maintenance students and help the industry continue to grow in the region.
Members of the Koukoulis family were present to present a check in the amount of $5,000 to Pierpont.
“Today is about honoring our father for me and my sister, Irene,” said Charles “Chuck” Koukoulis, who is the President and CEO of KCI Aviation in Bridgeport. “And it’s about contributing to the welfare of the foundation here that provides some resources for the graduates coming through the program so we can encourage more and help those people get through the program because we need mechanics.
“We are so fortunate to have this program here and the success of it has been great. This is a vital program. My father started at this airport in 1951. I grew up at this airport. This was my playground. One of his visions was this school.”
He added that there are plans to build upon the contribution to the point where there is an endowment that will assist even more students. The initial $5,000 has been earmarked to help students with FAA testing.
“This is going to help the students a lot,” Senior Professor and Director of Aviation at Pierpont Brad Gilbert said. “We really appreciate it and it’s honoring a pioneer in the aviation industry.”
Upon graduating high school in Weirton, Angelo Koukoulis enrolled in General Airmotive Technical School where he received his Federal Aviation Administration Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic certificate in 1943. Koukoulis was soon inducted into the Army Air Corps as a P47 fighter mechanic, serving from 1943-1945. His unit, the 48th Fighter Bomber Group 494 Squadron 9th Air Corps, arrived in Normandy 12 days after D-Day, providing much needed aircraft support at the airstrip located closest to the beaches.
Following his Army discharge, he attended WVU and was employed by the school to oversee aircraft maintenance operations. He obtained his private pilot’s license in 1947.
He was appointed by the FAA as a Designated Aircraft Maintenance Inspector in 1949. In 1951 he was invited, by what is now the Harrison County Commission, to operate a fixed base operation at Benedum Airport, now known as North Central West Virginia Airport. His company, AeroMech, Inc., was the first Federal Aviation Administration radio repair station in the state.
Koukoulis instituted an accredited course in career aviation, introduced the “buddy concept” for flight training, first used by the West Virginia University ROTC program and later adopted nationwide. In 1980 he founded West Virginia’s first fully certificated passenger airline, AeroMech Airlines, serving 23 cities in seven states.
He received the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic award in 1998 and was inducted into the West Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame in 2015.
Chuck Koukoulis joined his father in the Aviation Hall of Fame in 2019.
Editor's Note: In top photo, the Koukoulis family presents a $5,000 check to the Pierpont Foundation as Pierpont staff and students look on. In the bottom photo, Chuck Koukoulis adds his signature to the check.
