Winter 2006

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Up, Up, and Away Catching up with one of New England's first female pilots

—Linda C. Smith

Roma (Levy) Stern ’40 and Nancy Luce ’40 THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR was still a year off, but threats of war loomed. By 1940, at college campuses across the nation, the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA; precursor to the FAA), was busily recruiting students to train as pilots. Out of 20 at UMass Amherst, two females were chosen for the Civil Air Patrol. “I’m amazed that they included women. We couldn’t join any branch of the service back then,” recalls Roma (Levy) Stern ’40, one half of the pioneering pair. “Three times a week in the middle of winter we’d be up very early to get over to Barnes Airport in Westfield for our training. The men rode up front and made Nancy Luce ’40 and me ride in the rumble seat. I don’t think they liked the idea of having women along.” Stern completed her training and became one of the first females in New England to be licensed as a pilot. “My husband and children have told me that what I did was exceptional for the time.” Though Stern was the only one out of her group of friends to go to college (the rest got married instead), she didn’t see herself as a groundbreaker. “I guess it’s just something that’s in you. I was very adventurous and athletic, and I thought that having the opportunity to learn to fly was the best thing that could have happened to me. ” Despite succeeding in the male-dominated world of piloting, she encountered gender biases. “After graduating from UMass, I wanted to become a doctor, but unless you knew the president of the United States, I don’t think you got into medical school back then,” she says half-jokingly. Stern shared the strong sense of patriotism that was the norm in those days, and she enlisted in the Marines. “I had to do something. By then the war had started and I wanted to help. My brother, who was a dentist, was in the service, and my sister joined the WACs [Women’s Army Corps].” The Marines weren’t interested in her as a pilot so she became a drill instructor. After completing her service, she took a more traditional path. Stern married, had children, and became a 7th-grade science teacher in Amsterdam, New York, where she still lives. Eventually, due to the costs involved, she let her pilot’s license expire. Nowadays, at 87 years old, Stern spends her time volunteering at the local hospital and nursing home. She stills drives herself around. “I heard of a 90-year-old woman jumping out of a plane, and I was wondering if I’d still be able to do something like that,” she muses. Clearly Roma Stern hasn’t lost her adventurous spirit.

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