Aubrey Jennings Keif papers, 1938-1974

Aubrey Jennings Keif was a pilot, sportswriter, and aviation business man in Colorado. He began his aviation career as a pilot during World War I for the Royal Flying Corps; he was the only Colorado pilot to wear kilts while flying a Sopwith Camel airplane. From 1920–1929 he was a sportswriter and editor for the “Pueblo Chieftain.” In 1930 Keif flew with the Colorado National Guard and he became involved with the business side of aviation as a regional sales manager for the Curtiss Wright Airplane Company. In 1936, he joined Texaco as director of aviation sales and then took charge of the firm’s aviation activities all over the world until his retirement in 1965. He was named to the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974.

Keif was also actively involved in many aviation organizations including the Aviation Services Technical Committee of the American Petroleum Institute, the National Business Aircraft Association, and the “Conquistadores Del Cielo” (Conquerors of the Sky), an elite men’s club intended to gather corporate leaders in an informal setting at dude ranches in the west and annual meetings in New York; many of the members were considered builders of global industries primarily within aviation and aerospace.