Darrell Kovar

Darrell Kovar was born in Dodge, Nebraska in 1936. He served in the Army in the Korean War. Before retiring after more than 40 years at Western Electric, where he was a mechanic, Darrell had a wide variety of other jobs. He worked at the stockyards in Omaha, sorting cattle. When he was a teenager he worked in a grain elevator, an experience that he described as extremely unpleasant. Safety was basically nonexistant and it would have been very easy to get stuck in the bottom of the elevator.

Darrell got his pilot's license to get a different perspective than the average person had. He flew out of the South Omaha Airport before it closed, as well as the Millard airport and Eppley Field in Omaha. He enjoyed taking friends up, whether it was just to fly some circles or to check on farmland that had been flooded. One of his favorite flying stories is about a fly-in restaurant he visited. He owned a number of airplanes over the years, but his favorite has always been the Piper Cub.

Darrell has a keen interest in woodworking. He has amassed a collection of tools over the years, including a wood lathe, table saws, band saws, and more. He recently acquired a Shopsmith that has been really helpful. It combines a lot of commonly used power tools into one machine including a table saw, sander, lathe, drill press, shaper, and router. In addition to power tools, Darrell enjoys working with simple hand tools. He built a shaving horse, a design that goes back centuries, to make carving walking sticks with hand tools easier.