Mary Krapfl to Receive 2015 Henry Kimberly Award

October 2015 - Each year EAA recognizes a local volunteer with the Henry Kimberly Award, honoring local volunteers for their support, commitment, and leadership. This year we are pleased to have selected Mary Krapfl to receive the 2015 Henry Kimberly Award.

Mary has volunteered every year at AirVenture Oshkosh since 1985. She tried a little bit of everything—including aircraft parking and guarding the Voyager—until she found her home at Main Gate Admissions North. She worked there for a total of 25 AirVentures, 17 of them as the volunteer chairwoman.

In Mary’s position she handled everything from operational planning before AirVenture, to scheduling volunteers, and even cooking a hot lunch for her volunteers each day during the event. Mary’s hard work and leadership helped guide her volunteers from the use of manual cash registers to running the current AirVenture software, one of her biggest challenges. But whatever tasks needed to be done, large or small, Mary tackled them with enthusiasm and grace.

After 30 years of volunteering, Mary is passing on the reins of Main Gate Admissions North; AirVenture 2015 was Mary’s last. Mary’s leadership and enthusiasm make her a hard act to follow, and we have been blessed to have such a great volunteer and leader.

Mary and her extended family live in Lomira, Wisconsin. What will Mary do now that she’s retired from her chairmanship? She says, “There are many things I’ve wanted to do, like spend more time with family and grandchildren and travel. I have a new man in my life (Eugene Hoffmann), and we will be taking trips on his boat and in his Mustang. Life is good.” In fact life is so good that Mary and Eugene will be tying the knot on November 7! Congratulations Mary and Eugene; we wish you many years of happiness.

Thank you, Mary, for all that you’ve achieved on behalf of EAA during the past 30 AirVentures. You will be missed.