Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 9, 1993 TAG: 9309090396
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LYNN A. COYLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
During his years with the railroad - starting in 1926 as an apprentice machinist at 32 cents an hour and retiring as assistant shop engineer in 1972 - McCutcheon covered every state in the continental United States, plus many parts of Canada and Mexico.
McCutcheon liked to travel during the day so he could see the countryside, then stay overnight and hop another train the next day. These days on Amtrack, "you have to stay on the same train all the way through or wait 24 hours," he said.
He wanted to cover the entire country, so he'd always take a different route home. Now, from New York to San Francisco or Seattle "makes a nice trip on Amtrak," McCutcheon said, "but if you're off the beaten path, it might not be too practical."
After he married, his wife, Ruth, would join him on the trips. In 1944, the couple traveled to Mexico, mainly to see the Paracutin Volcano. McCutcheon was intrigued because most volcanoes erupt from an existing mountain, but "this one sprouted up in the middle of a farmer's corn field," he said. "By the time we got there, it was 1,200 feet high."
New Year's Day 1932 found him in Fabian, N.H., facing Mount Washington, the second-highest peak in the East. "It was a beautiful day, and it looked like it ought to be climbed," so he did. That was "about the biggest undertaking I ever did," McCutcheon said.
His 1932 trip out West was one of his favorite - taking him to Pikes Peak, the Grand Canyon and Los Angeles, where he attended the Olympics at a cost of $2.75 for the afternoon. "Now you can't get in the theater for that," McCutcheon said.
He took a Greyhound bus for part of the trip because the N&W, which gave him a free pass, only went as far west as Cincinnati or Columbus, Ohio. "After they took over the Wabash and Nickel Plate, I could go to Omaha or Chicago or Kansas City," he said.
But the railroad wasn't McCutcheon's first love. Flying was. So in 1932, "I left home on my '30 Indian Chief motorcycle," headed for Williamsburg to attend the College of William & Mary - the only "regular" college with pilot training, McCutcheon said.
The high point of McCutcheon's flying career was when he and six other William & Mary students dined at the same table with Amelia Earhart, the guest speaker at their graduation banquet. "She was a very charming lady and interesting speaker," he said.
McCutcheon then studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Michigan, but switched majors and earned a bachelor's degree in transportation engineering. "I didn't get along with the aeronautical bunch," he said. Besides, during the Depression all the graduates were "soda jerks and filling station attendants."
A couple of years ago McCutcheon visited an old flying friend in Richmond - an Aeronca C2 airplane he once owned that now hangs at the Virginia Aviation Museum at Byrd Field. After the plane had been in storage on his family's farm for about 25 years, McCutcheon sold it to a man in Pottstown, Pa., who restored it to museum condition. "It looked rather weather-beaten when I owned it," McCutcheon admitted.
His pilot's license expired right after World War II, but McCutcheon, who will turn 84 in September, still drives his '83 Ford Fairmont. "I hope to be able to drive for several more years," he said.
McCutcheon lived in Florida for 15 years after his retirement, but returned to Roanoke last year after his wife died.
These days, it's hard to get an appointment with the South Roanoke resident. He's too busy helping June Burgess and her family restore a Civil War-era tavern in Floyd County and moving furniture they plan to use when they open it as a bed-and-breakfast inn.
"Bill taught me what a nail-puller was. I had never seen one," Burgess said. And he still gets on the tractor and mows the grass, she added.
by CNB