Randy Acord

Who was Randy Acord?

Randall Keith "Randy" Acord was a historian of American aviation who in 1992 founded the Alaska Air Pioneer Museum at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Acord was a native of Clarendon, the seat of Donley County in the Texas Panhandle some sixty miles east of Amarillo. He attended college for two years and worked as an electrician, when on August 18, 1941, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps in Lubbock, Texas. In 1943, Acord was a young test pilot stationed at Ladd Field, now Fort Wainwright, an Army post in Fairbanks. He flew planes with the Cold Weather Testing Station and experimented with heating systems and landing planes with skis. He left the then United States Air Force with the rank of major. Subsequently, he was awarded the Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Award for his contributions to Russian-North American relations during World War II.

Acord had a vast knowledge of aeronautics. He recorded an oral history of the technical details of his flights. His wife of fifty years, Marion Acord, who survived him, took detailed notes for the benefit of future researchers.