“Take care of your crew first, take care of your airplane second, and everything else will work out”
-Curt Kriedeman
Curt Kriedeman
With the passing of Curt Kriedeman, aviation lost one of its finest aviators. Curt was a loving father, brother, friend, captain for Delta Air Lines, and the namesake for the Curt Kriedeman Foundation. Curt embodied our core values of integrity, passion, excellence, and knowledge. He was the ideal candidate for the Curt Kriedeman Foundation scholarship, not for his excellence in the classroom, but for his excellence in the flight deck. Curt regarded every flight - whether with his family, a student, or 290+ passengers - as an opportunity to further his knowledge and spread his passion for aviation. Curt always had a nugget of wisdom for those willing to listen.
It all started with
a dream…
What started out as an excuse for a group of friends to meet once a year turned into an idea. What if we could help develop future pilots who are like us? Not the best students, but the best pilots. With that idea, the Senior Flight Instructor Foundation was created in February 2019. When Curt passed away in May 2020, we unanimously agreed to change the SFI Foundation to the Curt Kriedeman Foundation. The Curt Kriedeman Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in June 2020. This was done not only to honor Curt and his legacy, but to show the industry what it meant to be awarded this scholarship. This scholarship is not awarded to the student with the highest grades, but who excels in the cockpit and has a passion for aviation just like Curt did and all of us do.