Dorothy McIntyre

Pioneering aviator and retired educator Dorothy Layne McIntyre, was born in Le Roy, New York in 1917. She completed her elementary and secondary school education in Leroy, enrolled in West Virginia State College, and was accepted into the Civilian Pilot Training Program. She received a pilot’s license form the Civil Aeronautics Authority in 1940, becoming one of the first black licensed pilots among American women.

During World War II, McIntyre taught aircraft mechanics at the War Production Training School No. 453 in Baltimore, Maryland while simultaneously working as a secretary for the Baltimore Urban League. She applied for admission to WASP, a program staffed by women pilots who ferried bombers during the war, but was denied because of her race. After moving to Cleveland, Ohio, she was employed as a bookkeeper for businessman Alonzo Wright and taught for a time in the Cleveland Public Schools.

McIntyre was the subject of the dance production, Take-Off From a Forced Landing, created by her daughter, award-winning choreographer, Dianne McIntyre. She was a member of the Tuskegee Airman’s Alumni Association and was profiled in Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science.

McIntyre was married to Francis Benjamin McIntyre for more than fifty years.

McIntyre was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 18, 2004.

McIntyre passed away on August 30, 2015.