AWOS to be dedicated to Kumor

By Shari Friedel

Grant Tribune-Sentinel

Leon Kumor served as Perkins County emergency management director and was on the Grant Airport Advisory Board for several years and strongly advocated for the AWOS (Automated Weather Observing System) a weather system that provides continuous weather condition reports. He felt it would be especially helpful with Flight for Life operations for the hospital in Grant. Because of these details, it is fitting that the newly installed AWOS at the Grant Airport will be dedicated in his honor, according to Edward Dunn, city administrator.

Ironically, Kumor’s final flight was on a Flight for Life helicopter, after suffering an aortic aneurism which would claim his life on March 30, 2021.

Leon was born in 1935 to Joe and Anna Kumor, who farmed north of Brandon, Neb. He attended a small country school until high school, when he went to St. Pat’s in Sidney, Neb., a boarding school at the time, where he graduated in 1953. 

He went on to college at Colorado State University, where he found two loves—Charlotte, from Akron, Colo., a fellow classmate at CSU who he would marry in 1958; and aviation.

Kumor took flying lessons during college and earned his first pilot’s license in 1957.

After graduating with a degree in ag economics, Leon served six months of military duty in the national guard.

Kumors, and his bride, Charlotte, resided at the family farm near Brandon, and welcomed two children, Ronald and Maureen. In 1974, they moved to Grant, into a house that they had built, and where Charlotte still lives.

While farming, Leon built a private grass airstrip, and used aviation to conduct farming operations such as checking fields from the air. He had purchased and sold two airplanes early in his career, his third, a Cessna 152, stayed with him for life. “He really liked that airplane,” Charlotte said.

“He would fly anywhere, with anybody,” said Charlotte. “He loved flying.”

He shared his love of flying with others, especially encouraging children to take an interest in aviation. He was very involved in EEA (Experimental Aircraft Assocation) and attended an air show in Oshkosh, Wis., 20 times. 

One of the biggest highlights in Kumor’s life was as the recipient of an FAA Master Pilot Award, which is awarded to pilots who have flown 50 years with no accidents.

A dedicated community member, Leon was involved in Lions Club and Boy Scouts, earning prestigious awards with each entity, and was a lifelong member of Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church. He was also on the Grant City Planning Commission.