Soon after I had begun this research & made contact with the Harder family, they decided to hold a reunion to remember both John Harder and also his brothers who had also served in the military during WW2. The following is what Fred Harder wrote...

John Worthington Harder (1923 – 1977)

John Harder lead a much too brief but exceptionally full and adventurous life.

He was born on July 27, 1923 the fourth of Trudy’s and Lewis’s children. Like his brothers and sisters he terrorized the locals of Philmont before being sent to the Fay School at a tender age and then on to Saint Mark’s following in the footsteps of his uncles and older brothers. At the age of 14, while on vacation in Palm Beach, he made his first solo airplane flight. Somehow he arranged to have this announced on a local radio station and told his mother to listen to the broadcast. By the time she heard the announcement he was on a train heading back north to school and safely out of her clutches. John was brilliant and possessed a near photographic memory. His command of the ancient Greek he learned as a teenager at St. Mark’s never ceased to amaze. Despite his intelligence he was a disinterested student and his formal education ended in 1940 after his 5th form (11th grade) year when he dropped out to fight the Hun.

John began his wartime career by ferrying military aircraft from North America to Britain. After a few of these trans-Atlantic flights, he decided to stay in England where he joined the Royal Air Force. In the RAF he flew many types of aircraft including heavy and light bombers, fighters, reconnaissance planes, and after the war even jets. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, was possibly the only American to remain in the RAF after the United States entered the war, and made many lifelong friends. His favorite aircraft, of course, was the Spitfire. Despite his claim that he couldn’t hit the broad side of barn from 10 paces, he shot down approximately 11 enemy planes. On the other side of the ledger he himself was shot down 5 times. On the last occasion, a few days after D-Day, his parachute partially malfunctioned and he severely injured his back. After briefly eluding the Germans with the aid of some French farmers, he was captured attempting to reach the allied lines. He was interred in several POW camps until the spring of 1945 when he and his fellow prisoners were liberated by the advancing Russians. After the war he participated in the interrogation of Adolf Galland, the head of the Luftwaffe fighter command, and flew in the Middle East as the British struggled to maintain their Mandate in Palestine.

John returned to the United States in 1946 and held various jobs as he tried to decide on a career. At one point when he was living with his mother and grandmother on 5th avenue in New York, he probably had the most prestigious address ever for a night cashier in a hamburger joint.

John married Joan Hopkinson in 1949 in New York. John and Joan had 7 children – Fred, Michael, Lewis, Carol, Barbara, Margaret, and Amy. Shortly after marrying John and Joan built a house using mostly their own labor on land given to them in East Hampton as a wedding present. Over the years the family lived in Manhattan, Brooklyn, East Hampton, Bedford, Pound Ridge, Collinsville, Ct, and Mercer Island, Wa. In his early business career John worked as a banker and in advertising but his heart wasn’t in it and in about 1955 he returned to first love - aviation. With some financial help from the family he started a small business selling and operating Aero Commanders which he called Commandaire. That company evolved over time to one that operated many types of corporate aircraft and the name became Starflite. The fleet included a DC-7C owned by McCann Erickson and equipped with only 14 seats and gold plated bathroom fixtures. At one point this plane was lent to Lady Bird Johnson for her American beautification campaign. It is hard to forget the Lockheed Super-Constellation owned by Moral Rearmament which used the plane to ferry potential converts to the cult’s indoctrination camps. Starflite also operated the East Hampton airport on Long Island and ran a one route airline between East Hampton and LaGuardia in New York. The one-way fare in 1964 was $18.00. John was always more interested in flying than operating the business and was eventually forced out when new financial backers, who were not as patient as his family, bought the company in 1967. John flew Lear Jets for a couple of years and then went to work for Boeing as an engineering test pilot and instructor. He primarily flew 737’s but was also among the first to fly and crash the 747. In about 1972 John had a heart attack and had to stop flying. In the last years of his life John worked in aviation litigation as an expert witness. John died on July 25, 1977.

The outlines of his life, while dramatic, fail to convey just how extraordinary a person John was. He was arguably one of the most charming individuals one might hope to encounter. A brilliant conversationalist and story-teller, he was incomparably entertaining and many people from all walks of life loved spending time with him. Although he failed to finish high-school, he was a highly educated man capable of holding forth credibly on many subjects. He loved to have fun and while he undoubtedly burned the candle at both ends, he lived a good life and inspired others. Even today he is sorely missed.


Fred Harder