1915-1962
Started modeling in the 1920s
Some written by WCB (01/1965); Some written and edited by JS (10/2009), transcribed and updated by JS (01/2011)
Bruno Marchi 1915-1962
Born Bruno Pieromarchi in Boston, Massachusetts, Marchi’s interest in aviation started early. He attended the New England Aviation School and graduated from Boston University on 1938 with a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering. However, his interest was not solely in fullscale aeronautics. He attended many local and regional meets, as well as numerous Nats and Canadian Nationals as a teenager.
He was a member of the Jordan Marsh-Boston Traveler Junior Aviation League’s Fly Squadron, Experimenters’ Club, and served as its Assistant Director for a short period. He helped design The Boston Low-Speed Wind Tunnel for model airplane tests with other JAL members. Bruno was president of the Boston Gas Model Society and designed and built Free Flight gas models.
A charter member of the AMA, he also worked for the organization for a brief time when the headquarters was in Washington D.C. (1939-1941). He served in the US Army and Air Force from 1941 to the early 1950s.
He was an aircraft mechanic and a crew chief on B36s.
Bruno Marchi with Teddy (Theodora) Kenyon, demonstrating the Boston LowSpeed Wind Tunnel.
Around 1950, Burno discovered he had multiple sclerosis and retired from the Air Force. He passed away in 1962 in Napa, California.
AMA Fellowships Bruno P. Pieromarchi (Marchi)
The April 1940 issue of Model Aviation states, “The newest addition to the headquarters staff of the Academy in the Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C. is Bruno P. Marchi, formerly of Boston, Massachusetts, where he was Assistant Director of the Jordan Marsh-Boston Traveler Junior Aviation League. He was first president of the Boston Gas Model Society… He is well known for his competition in National Competitions…”
Bruno left the Academy where he was Chairman of the Contest Board, and Technical Chairman, to enter military service on July 11, 1941 as a private. Your AMA Historian, in preparing material on the AMA staff over the years, wrote for Bruno’s military record, which ended with the statement, “Captain Pieromarchi died October 18, 1962, at Napa, Calif., while in a retired status.”
He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University in 1938, and took the Maintenance Engineering Course offered by the Air Force at Yale University, as well as a highly specialized course in Arctic Search and Rescue at Buckley Field, Colorado, in 1943. Working his way up in the military service, he was Technician, Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, and was awarded his Captain’s bars on July 13, 1949.
He was a patient in Letterman Army Hospital in 1950-1951 with the disability of multiple sclerosis. Although he was confined to a wheelchair the last time I visited him and Mrs. Marchi at their home in Napa, Calif., his mind was clear. Bruno enjoyed talking about the AMA, contests and his friends. Among his nine military Decorations and Awards were the Asian-Pacific Campaign Medal and the WWII Occupation Medal with the German Clasp and Berlin Airlift Device. -Willis Brown
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