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Col. August "Bill" Schell, CAP National Curator, passes away

Col. Bill Schell
Col. August William (Bill) Schell, National Curator, Civil Air Patrol, 1929-2009 (Photo credit: C. Todd Lopez, Defense Media Activity)

Long time Maryland resident and Wing member

By Col. Lawrence Trick, CAP
St. Mary's Composite Squadron

3/26/2009–Aberdeen, MD–Col. August William (Bill) Schell of Aberdeen, Md., passed away at his home on March 23, 2009. Schell served as the National Curator for the Civil Air Patrol, working tirelessly to preserve CAP history. Schell was 79 years old.

In 1944, Bill Schell joined the Civil Air Patrol as a cadet in Baltimore. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, Schell returned to his work with CAP in 1979. He was on Maryland Wing staff working in public affairs. He was promoted to Colonel in CAP, a promotion usually reserved for wing and region commanders, in February 2008 because of his efforts to promoting and preserving the history of the organization.

Schell was a constant attendee at numerous wing, region and national conferences displaying the CAP historical collection which he helped build. He was active in maintaining the CAP collection for the last several years, including many hours online searching and purchasing CAP historical items from auction sites.

An avid collector, he was also a regular attendee at the Joint Services Open House at Andrews AFB, MD; where he displayed his extensive Air Force insignia and patch collection. He also collected postmarks and stamps.

"It is a great loss to our historical preservation program. He was a true professional, extremely dedicated, and will be greatly missed by all who knew him," said Col. Larry Trick, former Maryland Wing commander and long time friend of Schell.

Mr. Don Rowland, Executive Director of CAP, stated, "Col. Schell spent many years preserving Civil Air Patrol's history and will be sorely missed."

Schell held the CAP Yeager, Loening, and Garber Awards and had a master's level rating in Public Affairs specialty track. He could be constantly heard from when composing photo publicity shots; since had worked in Public Affairs in the Air Force. He also attended the National Honor Guard Academy.

Col. Schell’s last appeared in public at the National Capital Wing Conference earlier this month.

Funeral services will be on Monday, March 30, at 1:00 p.m. at the Central Presbyterian Church on York Road in Towson, Md., followed by internment at Woodlawn Cemetery in Baltimore, Md.

The family has asked that Col. Schell's wishes be honored; please do not send flowers. In lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to the Civil Air Patrol Archives (Attn: Don Rowland), c/o CAP National Headquarters, 105 South Hansell Street, Building 714, Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-6332.

The Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U. S. Air Force, was founded on Dec. 1, 1941, less than a week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U. S. into World War II. CAP is a nonprofit organization with more than 56,000 members nationwide. The organization’s members perform 95 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, and were credited by the AFRCC with saving 90 lives in fiscal year 2008. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counterdrug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies.

Members take a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the almost 25,000 young people currently participating in the CAP Cadet Program. CAP’s cadet programs provide young men and women with a safe and motivating environment in which to grow and explore opportunities in the military and aviation industries. CAP has been performing mission for American for more than 63 years. There are approximately 1,400 members of CAP in Maryland. Last fiscal year wing members flew 42 search and rescue missions and were credited with 31 finds. For more information, visit www.mdcap.org.