NWA Capt. Charles “Chuck” Delton Hagen

 

~ IN MEMORY ~

NWA Capt. Charles “Chuck” Delton Hagen

June 30, 1930 ~ January 14, 2023

 

From family and friends we learn of the passing of retired Northwest Airlines pilot Captain Chuck Hagen, age 92.  Captain Hagen first joined Northwest Airlines 06-28-1950.  Please look for more information to follow in the days ahead.

Thank you,

~ Carol for the PCN    

https://rnpa.org/memoriam/obits  

   Captain Charles ‘Chuck’ Hagen, age 92, died Saturday January 14, 2023, in Denver Colorado. Chuck had struggled with Alzheimer’s Disease. Chuck was born in Minneapolis, MN to parents Blanche and Edwin Hagen. He was an only child. Chuck’s father worked on the Alaskan Highway Project but fell though the ice and died during a visit back to Siren, WI.

   Chuck attended Siren High School in where he was a good student, musician and played football in high school. Two divergent interests in Chuck’s life were playing the piano and flying. As a student he hitch-hiked to piano lessons because every cent of spare cash went for flying lessons at the grass strip airport in Siren. Chuck played the piano his entire life and always kept a photo of his piano teacher on the piano. When he refused to practice the teacher would shake her head and look at him asking, “What’s going to become of you?” He kept the picture on the piano to remind himself of that moment and it kept him humble.

   Chuck studied music at Superior State University, but after a few nights watching musicians in a nearby jazz club, he decided that aviation was the better career path. Northwest Airlines hired Chuck on June 28, 1950 as an aircraft groomer, and once again, whatever income he had to spare went for flying lessons. Once Chuck had acquired 220 hours of flight time, he started making the right connections by saying “Yes Sir” a lot and was rehired by NWA as a pilot. His official pilot date of hire was April 03, 1952.

   By the early 1950s NWA had a unique role in the post-war restoration of Japan Air Lines (JAL). Select NWA pilots and aircraft were reassigned to JAL to restart the post-war airline. Chuck’s first post-training assignment was to JAL.