William L. Withuhn (1941–2017)

[excerpted from Washington Post online obituary]
Mr. Withuhn was a sports-car enthusiast who had flown more than 200 combat missions as a navigator in the Vietnam War, but his greatest fascination was with trains. He grew up in the railroad town of Modesto, Calif., and while still in his 20s received his engineer's certification.

He later operated short-line railroads in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New York and became a railroad historian, preservationist and advocate in Congress before turning his love of transportation into a career at the Smithsonian.

At the University of California at Berkeley, he was cadet commander of the ROTC unit. After graduating in 1963, he joined the Air Force but learned that, at 6-foot-4, he was too tall to become a pilot.

There were no height restrictions for navigators, however, and Mr. Withuhn expected to become a navigator on transport planes. During the Vietnam War, he was assigned to a gunship and participated in more than 200 missions, most of them at night. He received two Distinguished Flying Crosses and the Bronze Star. He left the Air Force in 1972 as a captain and later served in the Air Force Reserve.

After retiring in 2010, Mr. Withuhn worked with the National Museum of African American History and Culture to restore and install a Jim Crow-era segregated railroad car from the 1940s.

On weekends, Mr. Withuhn traveled across the country to speak at gatherings of railroaders and to take part in train demonstrations, often in the engineer's cab.