WICHITA, Kan. (Tribune News Service) — In his almost full century of living, Ulysses Lee “Rip” Gooch accomplished much, but there was one mission that eluded him before his death at age 98 in late 2021.

His daughter, Bonita, said the aviator and longtime Kansas Aviation Museum board member was “doggone mad” that he never could upgrade the museum’s pitiful exhibit honoring Black airmen, which was a cobbled-together display on the landing of some stairs.

“He had been up until his death, I’m going to tell you, trying to . . . figure out what was it going to take to get some kind of exhibit up here for Black aviators,” said Bonita Gooch, owner of the Community Voice newspaper.

In the end, he didn’t have to figure it out.

The museum created a more fitting exhibit and named it in his honor.

The Rip Gooch Black Aviators Exhibit “is much more of a real exhibit,” said curator Logan Daugherty.

Museum executive director Ben Sauceda said the exhibit also is “going to set the stage with how we’re going to do new ones.”

“It’s all about that inspiration ... to really make this museum a part of inspiration for careers and for life,” Sauceda said. “Aviation is available to anyone and everyone that will put their minds to it.”

As much as the exhibit is designed to inspire and educate, it’s also about honoring Gooch and other Black aviators, particularly the Tuskegee Airmen who flew and fought in World War II.

Sauceda said one of the important stories in history is of Black pilots and “their contributions to our country, to their service, to our freedom.”

He said they “showed a dedication and tribute to what our country could be.”

“These men who were Tuskegee Airmen saw what could be in our country and gave their lives so we could move forward,” he said. “This gives us an opportunity to really highlight them.”

‘Good journalist job’

During a sneak preview of the exhibit, which opens Friday, Daugherty watched as Bonita Gooch toured it with her nephew, lobbyist Kerry Gooch, who is Rip Gooch’s grandson.

“This is great,” Daugherty said, smiling.

That was even before he heard Bonita Gooch pronounce the copy he wrote about her father to be a “good journalist job” that summarized his 98 years well.

Daugherty noted that Rip Gooch’s book, “Black Horizons: One Aviator’s Experience in the Post-Tuskegee Era,” helped.

“He really tells everything in his book,” Daugherty said.

“Ahhh, he missed a few things,” laughed Bonita Gooch.

The exhibit is still small and mostly consists of murals and copy about Gooch, the Tuskegee Airmen and other Black aviators.

Just outside the area where the exhibit is on the third floor, children from Mueller Aerospace and Engineering Discovery Magnet Elementary School painted a mural of a vintage Stearman like the ones the Tuskegee Airmen would have flown.

There will be an extension of the exhibit to that area in the future.

There’s been a lot of reshuffling and upgrading of exhibits at the museum.

In the former airport’s original baggage claim area on the first floor, there’s a new Welcome to Wichita exhibit and an expanded Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame.

There’s an expanded theater where the hall of fame used to be by an admissions area in the front of the museum, and then there’s the Black Aviators Exhibit.

“One of the things we’re really doing right now is examining . . . how things are displayed,” Sauceda said.

He said the Black Aviators Exhibit is special.

“We wanted this to really be a showcase piece.”

Sauceda said he hopes it will “set a standard by which we’ll move forward.”

He said it’s the first exhibit to bear someone’s name.

“Rip was a member of the board at the museum for a number of years and a huge supporter of the museum.”

Kerry Gooch said his grandfather brought together a lot of people in aviation — particularly in the Black aviation community nationally.

“It was always important to him to be telling the story about Black aviators . . . and making sure the rest of the Wichita community and the whole state of Kansas knew about Black aviators and what they contributed to this state and this country,” he said. “It was just always a passion of his to kind of give back and let the next generation know about what Black aviators brought.”

Bonita Gooch said a lot of Black aviators didn’t have opportunities due to discrimination. That included her father.

“He could have been a great commercial pilot,” she said.

She said her father fought to get Black airline pilots hired.

“He knew every single one of them,” she said. “It was a battle for these guys.”

Economic tool

There’s a mural leading into the Black Aviators Exhibit featuring an oversized Rip Gooch in a cowboy hat — his favorite, his daughter said.

She gently ran her hand over the mural, barely grazing his cheek, and said she appreciated the detail in the photo.

“I love the textures.”

Bonita Gooch said the whole exhibit is beautiful, and she thinks her father would approve.

“He’d be very pleased.”

Sauceda said next up will be a refreshed and redesigned military exhibit followed by an education center in a new area.

He said he wants to teach children about aviation and engineering and help retain talent in Wichita while making the museum an economic tool for the city.

“That’s part of our commitment as a museum to our community,” he said. “We have goals to move this . . . museum forward.”

Bonita Gooch said her father would appreciate the direction the museum is going.

“The museum — he’d be so proud,” she said.

Especially, of course, of the exhibit named for him, she said.

“This is what time and money can do. This is wonderful.”

(c)2023 The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.)

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