FORT WORTH, Texas -- American Airlines Federal Credit Union held "A Night with the CEO" on Feb. 12 that featured American Airlines FCU CEO John M. Tippets.
Tippets, who will be retiring mid-year 2008 after 17 years as president/CEO, shared the 29-day survival story of his father, Joseph H. Tippets. Joseph Tippets, a former CAA/FAA employee survived an airplane crash in Alaska during January 1943.
On Feb. 8, 1943 The Alaska Fishing News wrote of the plane crash, "No greater saga of the Northland was ever recounted than the experiences of the survivors of the Gillam plane crash. Bruised, shaken up, injured in the crash landing with a scant supply of food, in freezing sub-artic weather, each and everyone unselfishly cooperated for the common good."
John Tippets joined American Airlines in Los Angeles in 1966, and in 1967 transferred to the Corporate Planning Department at the headquarters in New York City. Before becoming president of the credit union in 1991, Tippets held various officer level positions in finance, marketing, planning and operations for Sky Chefs Inc., a catering and food services subsidiary of American Airlines.
--lsiegriest@cutimes.com
