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Ace’s collection spared auction block

Brig. Gen. Robin Olds made his name by shooting down enemy aircraft and conventional wisdom alike.

Yet when the legendary fighter ace died at age 84 on June 14, 2007, it turned out there was one foe he hadn’t outmaneuvered — debt. Olds owed about $120,000 in taxes and credit card bills despite getting paid for his public speaking engagements and appearances at aviation-related events.

Christina Olds thinks her father might not have had creditors knocking at his door if he had hired an accountant to handle his finances, but he was too independent to ask for help.

A week before he died, Olds told his daughter about his money problems.

“He said, ‘Honey, I’m sorry. I’ve left you a hell of a mess,’ ” Christina Olds recalled.

All that Olds left behind was a small life insurance policy and an enormous collection of memorabilia and documents related to his 33-year military career, which included 16 aerial kills during World War II and Vietnam and well-known disputes with Air Force leaders about the relative importance of tactical versus strategic air power.

In an appreciation titled “The Robin Olds Factor,” historian and retired Col. Walter J. Boyne described Olds as “big, tough, smart, and swaggering, not to mention brave and highly skilled.”

“He was a truly dynamic force, one who had a positive impact on the Air Force for more than 60 years,” Boyne wrote in the piece, published a year after Olds’ death in the online journal of the Air Force Association.

Olds’ collection includes more than 1,000 objects — plaques, signed books, uniforms, artwork, medals and thousands of photographs and documents, including battle maps, diaries, flight logs and citation paperwork. It fills about 800 cubic feet, to Christina Olds’ best estimation.

Christina Olds spent more than a year sorting through the collection and compiling her father’s memoirs, which he had written in pieces during his later years. The book, finished with the help of fighter pilot and aviation author Ed Rasimus, will be published next spring.

Olds wanted his documents donated to the Air Force Academy and Air University and his memorabilia given to aviation museums. But his creditors demanded that all the items be sold.

In March, Christina Olds began the heartbreaking process of putting her father’s collection up for sale through an online auction house. Just one of the objects — a lithograph signed by aviation legends including Olds, Curtis LeMay, Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong and Jimmy Doolittle — fetched more than $3,000.

Two months later, she sent an e-mail to about 300 of her father’s friends and associates, inviting them to bid on the items.

Immediately, phone calls, e-mails and letters started pouring in from Air Force veterans, historians and aviation buffs who wanted to help save the collection. Christina Olds received about 800 e-mails in the first two weeks after announcing the sale.

“The outcry from people who just were really upset that Robin’s stuff was going to go to the public rather than to museums just started this wave of support,” she said.

Along with some of the letters came checks.

Christina Olds turned to the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association, a group that her father played a role in founding, for help with the money. The “River Rats” are now on track to raise enough money to pay Olds’ debts and have enough left over to start a Robin Olds Foundation, which will provide scholarships and aid for wounded veterans.

In turn for their help, Christina will donate the collection to museums and archives in the River Rats’ name. Among the museums that probably will receive items are the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington; the Museum of Flight in Seattle and the Imperial War Museum in London.

Christina Olds is sure her father would have been touched by the tremendous show of support. He often felt underappreciated because of his controversial reputation, she said, and he had been surprised by the outpouring of well wishes when his battle with cancer became public knowledge.

“It was really amazing for him to realize how beloved he was,” Christina Olds said. “It was a deliverance of sorts. He started to realize that he had made an impact. When he passed away it was with that knowledge.

“I think he would be 100 times more overwhelmed by what’s happening now.”

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