Individual Details

Marriage

Div: 1968

Business

Notes from Bob Rigg, Jr. and James P. Litsey conversation 6/29/15:

Bob:Don Wegener ran the airplane repair service in Grand Junction (Wegener Aviation) and was probably Jim Jr's best friend. Early on they made a deal that Don Wegener would do all the mechanical work and Jim Jr would do all the air taxi, aviation fuel, etc. I remember seeing members of the Wegener family at Jim's funeral.

Jim:
Bobby, I am not 100% clear on how and to whom Dad's Rigg Aviation was sold. But I do remember the story Dad once told me later. It went something like this, "Dad [Grandpa Jim] put his fist down on the table and told me [Dad] that nobody made any money in aviation and convinced me [Dad] to go back to school. Soon after selling Rigg Aviation, uranium was discovered in Utah, and the guys who had the aviation business sold planes like hot cakes." Dad said he could have retired. Of course he went on to earn his undergraduate and medical degrees. Sadly, soon after Don Wegener sold his business, he died.

Interestingly enough, in 1978 a Beechcraft Executive named Leddy Greaver, said he remembered Rigg Aviation and Dad when I met with him on a political matter. I have great memories "flying" the graveyard planes out at the airport and "helping" Dad rebuild a Super Cub that had crashed. Then there were the aviation mechanics who built the Chris Craft Cruisers for the power runs down the Colorado. Tons and tons of stories....