A private fund established by the late Charles Gates is providing a $1.2 million grant to help the Lafayette Foundation build an aviation and military history museum in Fort Lupton.
The grant from the Charles C. Gates and June S. Gates Family Fund will help the foundation acquire land at Platte Valley Airport and build two hangars and a 15,000-square-foot museum. The project also includes a 3,600-square-foot interactive children’s museum.
“My father had a huge love of aviation and a great respect for flying and the men who flew in World War I and World War II,” said Gates’ daughter Diane Wallach, a trustee for the fund. “He loved to support projects like this that captured aviation history and projects that brought interesting history and events to Colorado.”
Run by Andy Parks, the foundation already has an impressive collection of military and aviation memorabilia, as well as aircraft from both World Wars, on display in a hangar at the Platte Valley Airport. It also restores vintage planes.
Denver collector Jerry Priddy is donating his collection of WWII memorabilia, including an original copy of the Instrument of Surrender, signed Sept. 2, 1945, on the Battleship Missouri.
“I feel that Andy and his foundation are among the best around, and I believe they’re going to go someplace,” Priddy said.
He initially offered to sell the collection to the foundation for $1.5 million. The donation will instead earn him a $750,000 tax write-off. Priddy also owns Denver’s historic Richthofen Castle, in the heart of the Montclair neighborhood on East 12th Avenue, and a collection of WWI memorabilia.
“The thing that sets us apart from any other museum in this region is that we’re an actual flying, living history museum,” Parks said. “The aircraft we have in the collection are flyable.
“The children’s interactive museum will be a place where kids can come and learn about aviation and participate in aircraft restoration and mechanics.”
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-820-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
