Who is Waukesha County Airport/ Crites Field named for?

When the Waukesha County Airport first opened on Aug. 18, 1935, it was largely due to the efforts of twin brothers and aviation enthusiasts Dale and Dean Crites. In 1980, the Waukesha County Board lengthened the name of the airport to Waukesha County Airport/Crites Field in honor of the brothers' contributions to Wisconsin aviation.

The Crites brothers have since passed on - Dean died in 2005, at the age of 98, while his brother Dale passed away 14 years before that - but their legacy continues to be felt at the airport.

According to Dean's obituary, in the early 1930s, the Crites brothers and other members of the Waukesha Aviation Club persuaded the Waukesha County Board to spend $5,000 to develop the airport on 136 acres, most of it county-owned swampland. Once the airport opened, the brothers founded Spring City Flying Service, a flight-training school and charter service. The brothers also served as the airport's first managers.

The twin brothers grew up in rural Walworth County, where they started building planes as teenagers. In his younger years, Dale devoted much of his time to aeronautical research and served as an instructor pilot for the Civilian Pilot Training Program during World War II, according to information from the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame. Dean was an accomplished precision flier who could astound crowds by picking up a handkerchief in mid-flight with the tip of his plane's wing.

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