Schmarr had an eye on Spokane
Dan Schmarr, Spokane’s “Eye in the Sky” in the 1970s and 1980s, died on Dec. 9 at age 71.
Schmarr was Spokane’s best-known aerial traffic reporter, delivering traffic radio reports from his Cessna to listeners of KHQ-AM and FM, as well as viewers of KHQ-6.
He did far more than broadcast radio traffic alerts. He was known for filming news events with one hand on a camera and the other on the controls. Then he would put the film canister into a potato sack and drop it into the field behind KHQ’s old building, where it would be retrieved for use on the evening news.
Yet his life encompassed far more adventurous and dangerous air missions during his 20 years in the Air Force.
He piloted U-2 spy planes over Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. Those missions by Schmarr and nine other pilots were credited with discovering the missiles that spawned the crisis. He also overflew the Soviet Union and China between 1964 and 1969.
“The U-2 required 110 percent of your concentration,” Schmarr was quoted as saying in a 1980 Spokane Magazine story. “It was not recreational. I enjoyed it, the sheer joy of high-performance aircraft.”
Schmarr went on to become commander of the 497th Tactical Fighter Squadron during the Vietnam War. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and retired as a lieutenant colonel.
His broadcasting career was not all in the air; he also was the co-host of KHQ’s “PM Magazine.” He also delivered more than 250 speeches to area clubs and civic groups.
He loved flying, but admitted in 1980 that being an airborne traffic reporter in a Cessna Skyhawk rated low on the thrill meter.
“This is flying by bare definition,” he said. “It just beats walking.”
He’ll be remembered fondly by many longtime Spokane residents.
KPBX Christmas programs
Here are just a couple of the upcoming Christmas concerts to be broadcast on KPBX-FM (Spokane Public Radio, 91.1):
“Wednesday, 7 p.m.: Paul Winter’s Silver Solstice, from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, the 25th-anniversary broadcast of Winter’s unique solstice concert.
“Wednesday, 11 p.m.: Wynton Marsalis and Friends’ Red Hot Holiday Stomp.
A very Weaver Christmas
Here’s a Spokane Christmas tradition you might want to check out: Michael Weaver’s “A Christmas Carol” at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave., on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Weaver, the artistic director of the Actor’s Repertory Theatre, uses his talent as an actor to make all of the characters in the Dickens story come alive.
Like most events at Auntie’s, it’s free.
A Ukrainian theater grant
Gonzaga University associate theater professor John Hofland is off to the Ukraine this summer to study the Odessa Puppet Theatre, an internationally known group.
He’ll be studying that theater’s activities for youth and compare them with his own work with at-risk youth. He won a Theatre Communications Group grant.
A grateful Christian Youth Theater
The Christian Youth Theater, hit by a devastating warehouse fire in October, has issued a thank-you letter to Spokane.
Nickle R. Van Wormer, executive artistic director, and Daniel P. Erb, board chair, said that people all over the community rallied around with assistance, services and support – especially local theater groups, businesses and news media.
All of this help enabled the theater to successfully pull off its fall shows, “Oliver” and “The Velveteen Rabbit.”
“Everyone working together made our task a much easier one,” they wrote. “We give thanks to all of you.”