Pilot Club of Orlando, Florida

Pilot Club International

Pilot International was founded as a professional women’s organization on October 18, 1921 in Macon, Georgia.

“Organized and developed by a representative group of business and professional women in Macon, the name Pilot Club International was adopted immediately to cover a concept as broad as an eventual worldwide organization based on Pilot principles.”

The term pilot has nothing to do with airplanes or boats, but refers to leadership, as in piloting a project. Members were selected based on classification of their profession, and only two members were permitted in each club under the same classification.

As stated in the 1950 new member guide:

Life and Health” has been the principal objective of Pilot International, and local Pilot clubs have based their chief projects on this theme… Pilot clubs in general choose some aspect of health and welfare work for their community service projects…

Pilot sponsors such worthy projects as recreational parks, community house centers, centers for the blind and deaf. Pilot undertakes cancer clinics, pre-natal clinics, orthopedic clinics, clinics for the treatment of venereal diseases. Pilot provides school lunches, milk, and eyeglasses for children. Pilot cooperates with tuberculosis seal sales, and aids both with money and with voluntary service with such agencies as the Red Cross, the Girl Scouts, and hospitals — veteran and civilian…

Pilot Club of Orlando and Winter Park

It is not clear when the original Pilot Clubs of Orlando and Winter Park that were active in the 1940s and 1950s were formed. According to Florida Division of Corporations, the Pilot Club of Winter Park was incorporated in 1960 and dissolved in 1974. Another entry shows the Pilot Club or Orlando-Winter Park was incorporated in 1960 and dissolved in 2002.

What is clear is that the organizations in Orlando and Winter Park positively impacted the lives of the citizens of Central Florida for many years and in many ways.

1948

The Pilot Club of Orlando donated ceiling projector machines to the Albertson Public Library to be used by sick or injured persons who could not sit up to read. The organization was featured in the August 1948 edition of the “Coronet” magazine for their gift.

Mentioned in the article about the purchase of the machines: Mrs. Dinorah Atkinson, Mrs. Dollye Hester, Mrs. Alice Engdahl, Projected Books, Inc., Miss Clara Wendel, Edna Bradford, WHOO Radio, Stavros Demopolous, Wesleyan College, Orange Memorial Hospital Sanitarium, Florida State Tuberculosis Hospital.

VIEW larger image.

1951

In February 1951, Estelle Bailey became a member of the Pilot Club of Orlando. Estelle was an assistant in the branches department of the Albertson Public Library.

Her new member guidebook contains information on every aspect of Pilot Club membership including: Code of Ethics, What is Pilot, Friendship and Service, Pilot Membership Standards, Committee Work in Pilot, Attendance is Paramount, Pilot in Business, Commercializing Pilot is Tabu, Politics and Religion in Pilot, Organization and Administration, and more.

VIEW Estelle Bailey’s new member guide.

In April 1951, the local members of the Pilot Clubs of Orlando and Winter Park hosted the 24th Annual Convention. Estelle Bailey’s copy of District 4, Pilot Club 24th Annual Convention guide lists all convention activities and events, the names of the local club members and national leaders.

Local members listed include Estelle Bailey (A.P.L.), Harriet Baird, Peggie Bozeman, Lola Brady, Jane Britton, Joyce Caldwell, Irene Clark, Mary Cox, Alice Cutten, Mildred Davis, Elizabeth Dickenson, Ruth Donahue, Alice Engdahl, Dorothy Feltyberger, Margaret Ferguson, Freeda Fetty, Ruth Gardner, Vivian Gartside, Mary Gordon, Kathleen Gregory, Doris Harper, Emma Hayman, Dollye Hester, Dorothy Heyl, Sara Hughes, Jessie Hyder, Helen Ingram, Eunice Keene, Margaret Keener, Christine Kilbourne, Charlotte Maguire, Esther McCall, Ethel McDonald, Johnnie McIntyre, Evelyn Nipper, Elizabeth Overstreet, Ruth Parker, Dorothy Phillips, Louise Pittman, Carolyn Richmond, Goldie Robinson, Janette Roux, Edith Royal, Bonnie Stall, Fannie Steakley, Dorothy Stewart, Jessie Toole, Diane Vergowe, Esther Veal, Claudine Wallace (A.P.L.), Flora Webb, Anne Whitman, Mildred Wicks.

ABOVE: VIEW 24th Annual Convention guide.

The guide also includes this statement from the local Orlando club:

The Pilot Club of Orlando has as its permanent civic project the complete outfitting of the New Children’s Ward soon to be opened in Orange Memorial Hospital. The Club wishes to thank the following friends who have so kindly added their contribution toward the equipment and maintenance of this worthy project. The club wishes to thank the following friends who have so kindly added their contribution toward the equipment and maintenance of this worthy project.

Orlando Daily Newspapers, Inc., Dickson and Ives, American Fire and Casualty Company, Sears Roebuck and Company, Green’s Fuel Gas, Harry P. Leu, Inc., Pleus Edwards & Rush, C. W. Rex, R. T. Overstreet Real Estate, E. B. (Doc) Moses, Southern Bread & Cake Company, Florida Bank at Orlando, Citizens National Bank of Orlando, Central Florida Lumber & Supply Company, Central Title & Trust Company, First Federal Savings & Loan Association, Britt’s Inc., Beacham Theatre, Grand Theatre, Rialto Theatre, Candy Box, Inc., Phil Berger, Reed Nash Motors, Inc., E. G. Duckworth, Alan Anderson, Evans Pharmacy, South Atlantic Gas Company, Victor Hutchins, Mill Supplies Inc., Florida Power Corporation, Myrick’s Furniture Inc., Fairchild’s Service, Carey Hand, Bumby Hardware Company, Rutland’s, Stroud’s Drug Stores, Claude H. Wolfe Inc., Fidelity Title & Guaranty Company, Harry’s Restaurant, Evans Drug Stores, White Turkey Restaurant, Ray Mears Jewelers, Klepper’s, Garland Cleaners, Gibbs Louis, Websters Drugs & Sundries, Associated Stores, Ivey’s Drug Store, Gerry Adams Restaurant, Price Collins Motors Inc., The Hat Box.