Capt. Maxwell W. Balfour, whose aviation career began in World War I and ended decades later when he stepped down as head of Spartan Aircraft Co., died Monday, August 8, 1977, at St. John Medical Center, Tulsa, OK. He was 82 and resided at 3701 S. Birmingham Ave., Tulsa, OK. He was born on Saturday, June 22, 1895, in Traer, IA, to William Balfour and Rachel (Coulter) Balfour.

Capt. Balfour started with Spartan when he came to Tulsa in 1939. He retired as director of its aviation division in 1961, after earning the sobriquet, "Mr. Aviation." During his career, Capt. Balfour was associated with Oklahoma oilmen, W. G. Skelly and J. Paul Getty, who once called him the best executive with whom he had worked. Capt. Balfour was also a close friend with some of the world's great aviators, including Charles Lindbergh.

A native of Iowa, he earned a bachelor's degree at Northwestern University, before joining a French ambulance corps in 1916. The next year, 60 years ago, Capt. Balfour learned to fly, joining the Third Pursuit Group. In 1918, he was a First Lieutenant in the Air Service Signal Corps Reserve. He remained in France as a military attache until 1924, when he returned to the states in an observation squadron post at Long Island, NY.

Capt. Balfour was test-flying an airplane in 1929, when the craft caught fire. He spent three years in the hospital, and retired from the service on October 30, 1931, as a Captain. He then was a private pilot, and later assistant director of the Roosevelt Aviation School at New York.

Capt. Balfour came to Tulsa to discuss the purchase of a Spartan Executive plane, and was hired by W. G. Skelly, who founded Spartan in the 1920s. When he arrived, the firm had lost $2 million, but he changed all that. During World War II, under his administration, Spartan trained 1,000 pilots for the Royal Air Force, along with 25,000 American pilots and mechanics. Spartan was headed by Mr. Getty.

Two years after the war, in 1947, Capt. Balfour was given a British Civil Award in recognition of his service to the Allies. After the war, he and Mr. Getty put Spartan in the mobile home business, manufacturing more than 100,000, before the plant was shut down. In 1949, the Spartan group formed Minnehoma Financial Co., and later Minnehoma Insurance Co. Capt. Balfour's last, full-time job was with the latter firm.

A member of numerous aviation-related societies, he also served in many advisory capacities with industry, government, and defense agencies. He was a member of the Order of the British Empire, the Order of Daedalians, the Quiet Birdmen of American, the John Evans Club, and the Baptist church. He had been affiliated with the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Caterpillar Club, Delta Tau Delta and Delta Sigma Rho, and had been president and a director of the Aeronautical Training Society, and had headed a subcommittee of the National Security Resources Board. He also contributed an article on flight training to Encyclopedia, Americana, one of the nation's oldest reference works. Capt. Balfour was one of a group of pioneer American aviation leaders whose life stories were included in the book, Mighty Eagles of the Sky, by Jack Harrison, in 1963.

Four years ago, in 1973, he married for the third time, to Inez D. Wilkinson, formerly an assistant editor for the National Geographic Society. Also surviving, is a daughter, Mrs. Kenneth Hadden, of Woodland Hills, CA. He was preceded in death by his parents.

Service 10:00 a.m., Thursday, August 11, 1977
Moore's Eastlawn Chapel, Tulsa, OK

Interment at Memorial Park Cemetery, Tulsa, OK


Moore's Eastlawn Chapel
918-622-1155