U. L. Gooch

U. L. "Rip" Gooch
Member of the Kansas Senate from the 29th district
In office 1992–2004
Personal details
Born	Ulysses Lee Gooch (1923-09-13) September 13, 1923 Ripley, Tennessee
Political party	Democratic
Residence	Wichita, Kansas
Occupation	pilot, businessman

Ulysses Lee "Rip" Gooch (born September 13, 1923) is a former pilot, aviation entrepreneur, and Kansas politician. Gooch was a member of the Kansas Commission on Civil Rights, 1971-74; member of the Wichita City Council, 1989-93; and a Kansas state senator (D-Wichita, 29th District - central-northeast Wichita) from 1993 until retiring in January 2004 as the state's oldest serving senator. Gooch was one of the first inductees to the Black Aviation Hall of Fame.

Early Life

Gooch was born in Ripley, Tennessee, the son of rural Tennessee sharecroppers and the grandson of emancipated slaves, Gooch was orphaned at age four and fended for himself growing up in the 1920s and 1930s under the shadow of Jim Crow. Working in fields while watching airplanes fly overhead, he dreamed of escaping to a better life. While in high school, in 1943, during World War II, Gooch joined the Army, and was eventually shipped to the Philippines as a sergeant supervising a construction operation; he was discharged after the war in 1946. He graduated from his hometown's Lauderdale High School while in the military.

Aviation Career

Gooch subsequently began taking flight lessons on the GI Bill, earning his private pilot's license in 1947, and continued flight training at a private flying service. About this time, he met and married Augusta Fields. While also attending Tennessee State University (then Tennessee A & I University), studying veterinary medicine, he continued his flight training, eventually becoming a commercial pilot and flight instructor. He became a part-time stunt flyer with the legendary airshow empresario Billl Sweet.

However, despite earning his wings, Gooch couldn’t find full-time aviation work because he was black. In 1951, Gooch moved to Wichita, Kansas -- a major aviation industrial center known as the "Air Capital City" -- where he began to work for Boeing Airplane Company. After battling racism at Boeing while working as a Boeing inspector in the 1950s, he decided to start his own flight business -- one of the first black-owned modern FBOs (general aviation fixed base operations) in the U.S. , which provided a stepping stone for a number of other black pilots.

In the years since moving to the Air Capital, his aviation career included being a flight instructor and examiner, and charter pilot, and -- at Wichita's Rawdon Airport-- owner/operator of its FBO, Aero Services, Inc. Aero Services was the Mooney Aircraft regional distributorship for Kansas and parts of Missouri (ironically right across the street from the factory of Mooney's chief rival Beech Aircraft). Aero Services also provided flight training, charter flying, aircraft rental and storage, operated an extensive government-contract air taxi operation moving classified information between U.S. military bases in 17 states, and overhauled military helicopter parts.

In 2001, Gooch was inducted into the Black Aviation Hall of Fame.

A Kansas Senate Resolution honoring him in 2013, notes that:

"Senator Gooch was instrumental in the formation of the International Black Aerospace Council, an umbrella organization of five major black aviation organizations. He has served on the Aviation Advisory Committee of the Kansas Department of Transportation, the Air Museum Task Force and the Wichita Airport Authority, and he is a member of the Kansas Aviation Museum Board;..."

U. L. 'Rip' Gooch is currently (2014) a pilot with 20,000 flight hours (over 18,000 as pilot-in-command), and is a retired Federal Aviation Administration pilot examiner.

Political Career

Gooch served on the Kansas Commission on Civil Rights from 1971 to 1974

One of the few African Americans elected to the Wichita City Council, he served from 1989 to 1992, including two one-year terms as Vice Mayor.

Gooch was elected to the Kansas Senate in 1992 as a Democrat, serving from 1993 until 2004, representing the 29th Kansas Senate District -- an inner-city area in central-northeast Wichita.

The 2013 Kansas Senate Resolution honoring him reported that:

"His committee assignments have included service as ranking minority member of the Federal and State Affairs and Transportation Committees plus membership on the Elections and Local Government, Administrative Rules and Regulations, Local Government, Commerce, Economic Development and Governmental Organization Committees. He also served on the Joint Committee on Rules and Regulations and the Joint Committee on Economic Development;..."

In 2004 -- citing frustrations with the lack of progress in the shortest Kansas legislative session in decades -- Gooch retired from the Kansas Senate as the oldest serving Kansas senator.

Gooch was succeeded by State Representative Donald Betts (D-Wichita).

Gooch successfully urged daughter Bonita Gooch to assume leadership of Wichita's leading black newspaper, the Community Voice, which she subsequently has operated for decades.

Retirement and Publicity

In 2001, Gooch was inducted into the National Black Aviation Hall of Fame.

In 2006, with journalist Glen Sharp (New York Times, Newsweek), self-published his autobiography: Black Horizons: One Aviator's Experience in the Post-Tuskeegee Era,, (also online at Google Books, and distributed by Amazon.com, and as a Kindle e-Book)

In 2008, Gooch was the subject of a documentary film:From the Bottom.

In 2013, as he approached age 90, the Kansas Senate issued Senate Resolution No.1770: A Resolution congratulating and commending Senator Ulysses Lee "Rip" Gooch,, and Gooch, with friends and supporters, organized a 90th birthday party for him that drew hundreds to a local theater.

Gooch currently (2014) resides in northeast Wichita, Kansas.

External links

• Official website of U. L. "Rip" Gooch
• The Political Graveyard