NWA Capt. Sharon (Finch) Bigelow

 

~ IN MEMORY ~

NWA Capt. Sharon (Finch) Bigelow

October 7, 1950  -  April 13, 2025

 

In 1974, after a friend gave her a $20 airplane lesson, Sharon spent her days pumping gas at the local airport in exchange for flight lessons and worked nights as a waitress to pay her rent……

Sharon Louise Bigelow was a trail blazer who will be long remembered for paving a path for women in aviation……

Sharon joined Northwest Airlines 07-12-1982 and retired with Northwest in 2007.

PCN memorial site  

 

https://www.doylefh.com/obituaries/Sharon-Louise-Bigelow?obId=42100305

 

Sharon Louise Bigelow

• Born October 7, 1950 New Rochelle, NY

• Died April 13, 2025 (age 74) Basking Ridge, NJ

 

Sharon Louise Bigelow, 74, died on April 13 after a long struggle with dementia.

 

Sharon was born in New Rochelle, NY, on October 7,1950. Shortly thereafter, her family moved to the Beech Hills community of Douglaston, NY, where they lived for several years before moving to Rockland County, New York. Sharon attended public schools and graduated from Spring Valley High School in 1968.

 

In 1972, she graduated cum laude from Adelphi University in New York with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology. She spent the following summer touring Europe with a friend and continued solo working at a kibbutz in Israel for several weeks. She would cultivate such experiences in later years.

 

After returning to the US, she moved to Boulder, Colorado, and fell in love with the American West. She met James (Jim) Finch there, and the two wed in 1979 and later moved to Steamboat Springs, overlooking the Yampa River Valley, where they lived together until the end of their marriage in 1998.

 

In 1974, after a friend gave her a $20 airplane lesson, Sharon spent her days pumping gas at the local airport in exchange for flight lessons and worked nights as a waitress to pay her rent. Whether towing gliders at Boulder’s airport or hopskipping a small private plane across the continent for its owner (in exchange for the coveted flight miles she could accrue), she reached towards her dream of becoming a professional aviator. Within a few years, she was instructing and managing a flight school, flying NOAA scientists for research, and landing on lakes in Alaska.

 

By 1976, Sharon was working as a bush pilot for Talkeetna Air Taxi in Alaska and became the first woman to land on the massive Denali (aka Mt. McKinley). She would land climbers and hunters on the glaciers of the Don Sheldon Amphitheater, 10 miles southeast of the summit and at the head of the Ruth Glacier.

 

Sharon was an early member of The International Society of Women Airline Pilots (ISA+21) which began in 1978 with 21 female airline pilots. She served on ISA+21’s executive board and was instrumental in creating their scholarship for inspiring women pilots. She was recognized in 1982 on the group’s honor board of “Notable Pilots” as the first female pilot hired by Midway Airlines and she flew DC-9s throughout the Midwest.

 

After Midway ceased operations, Sharon joined Northwest Airlines. As part of the company’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1997, Sharon captained a DC-10 from Honolulu to Osaka, Japan, leading the first transpacific flight with an all-female flight crew. The ground-breaking flight captured the attention of Japanese news media and her picture and story appeared in multiple TV outlets and over 50 newspapers.

 

Sharon became the first female captain at Northwest to pilot the Boeing 747 plane. She flew mostly transpacific flights until her retirement in 2007.

 

Sharon had a unique love for nature and the outdoors, enjoying wildlife, photography, hiking, camping and skiing. She travelled extensively, including many trips to East Africa, where she photographed and studied wildlife - especially elephants. Her trips often included volunteer research and visits to rescued orphaned elephants. After she met and befriended a fellow wildlife photographer and elephant lover on one of those trips, the two took over a dozen more trips together, spending precious time in the presence of these magnificent yet threatened species.

 

Sharon embarked on many trips to Europe and especially loved Greece, where she enjoyed cruising on her sailboat, Destiny, and graciously included family and friends on sails from island to island. She frequently visited Hawaii, where she often volunteered on EarthWatch expeditions—identifying, recording, and swimming with humpback whales, another of her favorites. (She even took a transfer to Hawaii and lived in Waikoloa for 3 years). Sharon’s love for animals extended to dogs and she nearly always had 2 or 3 at home.

 

Sharon demonstrated her courage in her personal life as well. She overcame breast cancer over 20 years ago, and she lived with dementia in the past decade, living the last five years at the Fellowship Village retirement community in Basking Ridge, NJ.

 

She was predeceased by father Roswell Lowell Bigelow, mother Blanche Perkins Bigelow, and brother Douglas Brian Bigelow. She is survived by sister Carol Laba of Rockaway, NJ, brothers Bruce Lowell Bigelow of Oakland, CA, and William Perkins Bigelow of Quincy, MA, as well as four nephews and two grand-nephews.

 

Sharon Louise Bigelow was a trail blazer who will be long remembered for paving a path for women in aviation.

 

In lieu of flowers, donations in Sharon’s memory can be made to:

• Donation to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Sharon’s memory

• Donation to Save the Elephants in Sharon's memory