Gone West: Paul Arthur Bannister

My father - Paul Bannister - died on October 20, 2025. This is a bit long, as Dad was around for ninety years.

Paul was born (June 1935) and grew up in the town of Cozad, Nebraska. In that time, most folk lived on farms and in rural towns, and Cozad is farm country in the center of the United States.

His father was a lawyer, and his mother a teacher. The Great Depression meant they waited a few years before having kids. Paul was their first. Two sisters followed.

Dad had many good memories from growing up in Cozad.

Paul started at the Colorado University, one of the best engineering schools. Time in Boulder was cut short as in his freshman year, heard his father was dying. Raced across Colorado and Nebraska, but could not get there in time. Much would have been different, if his father had lived.

He went a sideways for a time. Dropped out of college in Colorado. Went briefly to the University of Nebraska. Met my mother - Virginia. Ran a gas station in Cozad, briefly.

I was born there in Cozad. Fell out of a car window at the gas station and landed on my head. Dad thought that might explain a lot.

Paul worked at a couple of small outfits doing some engineering. (Back in the day when most folk in engineering did not have college degrees.)

He landed an aerospace job in southern California with the Autonetics division of North America Aviation (which later became Rockwell). Drove an old Studebaker, towing a U-Haul trailer from Nebraska to California, when I was three. Lived in Downey, where my first sister was born. Later moved to Placentia, where they would stay for more than forty years. My brother and another sister were born in Placentia.

In that time, Aerospace in southern California was huge, due to both the Cold War and Space Race. Grew up with orange groves and rocket ships. Most of our neighbors were new from everywhere else.

Saw all sorts of advanced technology on the annual company Family Days. Saw a scorched Apollo, back from space (built by the company). Saw early versions of advanced electronics: anti-lock brakes, computer-driven knitting machines, sonar and guidance systems.

Paul worked on missile guidance systems and did much early work with integrated circuits. He had a story where the DoD required they train engineers from Fairchild. Engineers from Fairchild would later found Intel.

Paul took flying lessons at Corona airport, and in 1966 got his private pilot license. He joined a flying club at the Fullerton airport, and flew both a Beechcraft Musketeer and a Cessna 120. Over the next several years on vacation we would fly to family in Arizona, New Mexico, and Nebraska.

Dad was active in chapter 92 of the EAA (Experimental Aviation Association). He wrote the chapter newsletter for several years. This meant we would drive around, visiting homebuilders at their garage or hangar. Also meant every month preparing 200-odd twenty-page newsletters. We spent many hours preparing stencils, cranking out Mimeographed pages, folding and stapling - in last-minute all-night sessions.

Dad also helped organize the Chino Airshow in the late 1970s. The airshow started as a smaller fly-in at the nearby Corona airport, but so many folk showed to watch, they had to move to Chino. He spent many nights calling folk all over the country to arrange airshow appearances. (In the time when lengthy long-distance calls added up.) At the peak, the Chino Airshow handled millions of visitors, and all was run by volunteers from local EAA chapters.

After Proposition 13 passed in 1978, local city government suddenly demanded huge sums up-front. This was more than local EAA chapters could risk, and so the airshow ended.

As the Cold War ended, Paul was transferred from aerospace in Anahiem to the commercial electronics branch in Newport Beach. There he did VLSI work for modems and cellular phones - always at the bleeding edge.

In the 1980s, I married and had three kids. My kids have fond memories of weekends at my parents house. They would race to the back bedroom to play computer games. Every other month we would go to a ACP swapmeet. The ACP swapmeet grew out of the early days of homebrew computing in Orange County. My kids could count on scoring at least one item off my parents. After we would go to breakfast at one of Dad's favorite restuarants.

In 1999 my brother died in a motorcycle accident. We talked recently about missing my brother. He was the problem-child. In high school and after, messed-up on drugs and alcohol. Then he straightened out. Met a very nice girl. Got married. Got a job and gained respect working at a local car-dealer. Then died one morning in a meaningless accident.

In October 2001, my father and mother drove to Montrose to buy their home for retirement. That day, Virginia died of an unexpected heart failure. Drove out to support Dad. He bought the house in Montrose.

Dad went sideways for a while. Talked to him near every day, to keep him in the world.

Took a few years, then in 2005 he sold the house in Placentia, and retired to Montrose. Bought a nice airplane, made new friends in Montrose and on the Western Slope. Had a good twenty years in Colorado. Would drive out to visit with my kids, a few times per year. When my kids were grown, they would visit on their own.

The last couple of years, two strokes took a lot away. He had trouble talking, could no longer use computers, and struggled with phones. Dad was missing Mom, and many friends no longer around.

In truth, he was ready to go.