Flight Scholarship Honors Late Finance Officer Who Loved CAP

By Loretta Fulton

For a man who wasn’t even aware of Civil Air Patrol until he was in his 50s, Kenneth Bureau sure made up for lost time.

His appreciation for the organization was even highlighted in his obituary following his death on May 18, 2021, at age 82. The obituary noted that Kenneth volunteered at numerous places, including his church and Habitat for Humanity. But one volunteer opportunity stood out.

“Out of all of his volunteer activities he was most proud of (and grateful for) was his time with the Civil Air Patrol,” the obituary stated.

In his lifetime, Kenneth touted Civil Air Patrol to anyone who would listen, and he ensured that his love of CAP would long be remembered by including a $50,000 scholarship endowment in his will. To honor that bequest, his two sons, Howard and Jeffrey, established the Lt. Col. Kenneth J. Bureau Memorial Flight Scholarship. The first recipient will be named in 2024. Priority will be given to cadet applicants who live in northern Michigan or Minnesota.

“It's always exciting to see 'CAP families' who connect with the CAP Foundation to establish named scholarships,” said Kristina Jones, president/executive director of the Civil Air Patrol Foundation. “This gift is a tribute to Lt. Col. Bureau's commitment to ensuring opportunities for cadets.”

Howard and his wife, Akiko, live in Blaine, Minnesota, where Howard owns AutoMap Vehicle Wash Systems, Inc. Jeffrey and his wife, Helen, live in Bloomington, Minnesota, where Jeffrey is an attorney for Thrivent Financial. Howard and Akiko are the parents of three sons, Ken, 21, Tom, 20, and Sam, 18. Jeffrey and Helen are the parents of a daughter, Grace, 21, and a son, Matthew, 18.

Kenneth Bureau was born Aug. 24, 1938, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that he heard about Civil Air Patrol. Both Kenneth and son Jeffrey got their pilot’s license at the same time in the ‘80s when Jeffrey was in high school.

“It was through flights and hanging around other pilots that my father met some Civil Air Patrol members,” Howard said. “He became very interested and decided to join as a volunteer senior member.”

Kenneth lived in Fridley, Minnesota, and rose in the ranks of Civil Air Patrol to serving as finance officer for the Minnesota Wing. He was a member of the North Hennepin Composite Squadron, based in Crystal, Minnesota.

All those years of praising Civil Air Patrol paid off for Kenneth. Howard and all three sons were members of the Anoka Composite Squadron in Blaine, Minnesota. The three boys joined CAP after each turned 15. The Kenneth Bureau influence is evident in the lives of all his grandsons:

• Jeffrey’s son, Matthew, will be enrolled in the University of North Dakota aerospace program this fall to become a pilot.
• Ken, the oldest of Howard’s sons, suffered a stroke before he was born. He was a CAP cadet for a few years before it became too difficult for him, and his parents had to withdraw him from the program.
• Howard’s middle son, Tom, received a flight scholarship from Civil Air Patrol and enrolled in the North Central Region Flight Academy in Fremont, Nebraska, in 2019. He is now enrolled at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he is majoring in mechanical engineering. Tom is in his second year in the Air Force ROTC program.
• Howard’s youngest son, Sam, received a CAP flight scholarship and enrolled in the Mid-Atlantic Flight Academy in Camden, South Carolina, in 2022. He is planning to follow his brother in engineering and the Air Force ROTC program.

Kenneth Bureau’s grandsons aren’t the only ones who will benefit from his influence. Thanks to his generosity, young men and women in Minnesota and northern Michigan will have an opportunity to get a flight scholarship in his name beginning in 2024. Northern Michigan, especially Marquette, was close to Kenneth’s heart because that’s where he grew up with two older brothers and two younger sisters. It was an isolated environment in the midst of the Great Depression and World War II, but the children made their own fun.

“He loved Marquette, Michigan, and talked about it all the time,” Howard said.

Kenneth established a scholarship for business majors at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, where he earned a degree as a business major.

If it hadn’t been for Kenneth’ interest in aviation, his introduction to Civil Air Patrol might never have happened. But it did happen, and Kenneth made the most of it. He liked what he saw in CAP and the influence that it had on young people.

“He always commented on how professional and courteous the young cadets were,” Howard said. “And he was amazed at how many opportunities the cadets had — if they worked hard towards a particular goal.”

Because of his expertise and experience in management, Kenneth was always a finance officer in CAP. Howard recalled that his father oversaw a very small CAP budget at the squadron level and that it pained him to have to say “No, sorry, it’s just not in the budget” when someone asked for money. In his final years, Kenneth worked on statewide budgets and planning as a finance officer for the Minnesota Wing.

Howard summed up his father’s life as always being professional, always stressing teamwork, and most importantly, always being good-humored. Finally, Howard said, his father understood that goals, hard work, and perseverance were essentials in life, especially for youngsters. Kenneth Bureau’s hope was that a Civil Air Patrol scholarship would help cultivate those qualities in future cadets.

“In essence,” Howard said, “he wanted to add on to a long tradition of Civil Air Patrol’s community service and its training of our future leaders.”