Fred Noonan

Frederick Joseph Fred Noonan was an American flight navigator, sea captain and aviation pioneer who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacific Ocean during the 1930s. He was last seen in Lae, New Guinea, on July 2, 1937, on the last land stop with famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart, , as her navigator when they disappeared somewhere over the Central Pacific Ocean during one of the last legs of their attempted pioneering roundtheworld flight.

Noonan was born in Cook County, Illinois . His parents were Joseph T. Noonan and Catherine Egan . Noonans mother died when he was four, and three years later a census report lists his father as living alone in a Chicago boarding house. Relatives or family friends were likely looking after Noonan. In his own words, Noonan left school in summer of 1905 and went to Seattle, Washington, where he found work as a seaman.

Source: Wikipedia