The legacy of Merle Fogg lives on at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport
On May 1, 1928, the south Florida aviation fraternity was shocked and saddened to learn of the untimely death of one of their own. Broward County aviation pioneer and flight instructor Merle Fogg perished along with one of his students when the plane in which they were flying went into a spin and crashed in an orange grove near West Palm Beach. Fogg and 22 year old Thomas Lochrie were in the front cockpit of the Waco biplane. At the controls, in the rear cockpit, was C. S. Nelson, another of Fogg’s students. Nelson survived his injuries but Fogg and Lochrie died within a matter of hours after being pulled from the wreckage and taken to a hospital. Fogg was 29.
Fogg was widely considered to be Broward County’s foremost aviation pioneer. Around 1925 he set up Fort Lauderdale’s first flying school on a small airfield just north of today’s Las Olas Boulevard and the Intracoastal. His personable, outgoing personality made him one of the best-known and well-liked residents in the city. In addition to giving flying lessons, he performed aerial surveys, took photographs and was available to transport passengers around the state.
Fogg’s funeral was attended by a reported two thousand people. After the service, the funeral procession moved from the funeral home to the Florida East Coast railway station, where his body was to be transported back to his home state of Maine for burial. Ten airplanes piloted by Miami aviators flew overhead, dipping wings in a final salute and showering the procession with floral offerings. Among the Miami pilots paying tribute were Harry Rogers and Sam Belcher.
A year later, on May 1, 1929, Merle L. Fogg Airport was dedicated at an abandoned municipal golf course in the aviator’s honor. The dedication ceremony was attended by 5,000 people, who considered that no more fitting tribute could be made to the young aviator than to dedicate an airfield in his name. The former golf course was repurposed into an airfield with only minimal effort.
The Depression years of the 1930s saw little flight activity at the airport and the field became overgrown. When World War II broke out, Fogg Field was taken over by the Navy and greatly expanded as NAS Fort Lauderdale. Broward County acquired the airport after the war and Mackey Airlines began using it for scheduled passenger flights in 1953.
Today, the former Fogg Field is Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. In 2023, some 35.1 million passengers traveled through the airport created in Merle Fogg’s honor.