Fly-In Sleepover

The skies above Lake Winnebago are quiet once again, and spiritual retreats have long-since resumed.

For a week this past July, though, the Jesuit Retreat House (JRH) on Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wis., paused its normal summer schedule and opened its doors, as it has done for decades, to aviation enthusiasts from around the world. This year, JRH guests included four Tuskegee Airmen; private, corporate and commercial pilots; and members of the National Association of Priest Pilots (NAPP).

“I hope to return to this beautiful place for a directed retreat,” says Fr. Joseph McCaffrey of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and past president of the NAPP. “Love it here!” Normally during that week, JRH would be facilitating 5- and 8-day silent retreats. But each year, when Oshkosh’s Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) hosts AirVenture, the world’s largest fly-in event, more than 600,000 visitors descend on the area. The noise and visual distractions from daily air shows at EAA—a mere eight miles away—along with the take-offs and landings of seaplanes directly in front of JRH, make retreats impossible.

Lodging is difficult to find, so to make the best of the situation, and recover lost revenue from canceled retreats, JRH turns itself into a temporary home for travelers. Overnight accommodation includes breakfast and a morning Mass in which a prayer is said for the safety of everyone attending, performing in, arriving at or departing from AirVenture. “We get some interesting individuals,” says Fr. Mark Carr, SJ, the House’s executive director.

Jean Bernard Poupart, a private pilot from Grimaud, France, stayed at the House for the first time this summer, and Mary Build, an aviation safety representative and commercial pilot from Maine, was back for a second year. Tuskegee Airmen Lt. Col. George Hardy, 98; Lt. Col. James Harvey, 100; Dr. Eugene Richardson, 99; and Lt. Col. Harry Stuart, 99, also stayed at the House.

“Theres a huge lake there, and it sits right on the edge, and the grounds are immaculate,” says Harvey, who travels with his son-in-law Ron Green. “It’s beautiful—you’ve got to go.”

JRH’s tradition of opening its doors to EAA AirVenture visitors began in the 1990s when the late Fr. Richard McCaslin, SJ, then JRH’s director, received a lodging request from Ethel Meyer Finley, a Women’s Air Service Pilot

(WASP) in World War II and a JRH retreatant. She would be returning to Oshkosh for the fly-in and wondered if she could stay at JRH. In the following years, more WASPs, and staff from the National WASP WWII Museum in Texas, stayed at the House. The guest list grew from there.

“We filled all the rooms,” says Susan Philipp, who has worked at JRH for more than 40 years, currently as business manager. “We hauled mattresses from storage and put them in conference rooms, basement areas, on sofa sleepers, doubled-up single rooms. Some people brought sleeping bags and slept on air mattresses or cots. One person actually brought their camper for a few years and parked it on the grounds.”

WASPs and escorts once filled the 40-room retreatants’ wing and 15-room annex, but their numbers have declined and this year only staff members from the Texas museum were present.

“The retreat house now boasts a 60-room retreatants’ wing opened in 2015 with private bathrooms, a prayer chapel, art room, two lounges, screened porch and elevators—a far cry from the days of sleeping on an air mattress in the basement,” says Fr. Chris Manahan, SJ, the House’s former executive director.

He recalls a conversation he had at the breakfast table one morning years ago with Elizabeth “Betty” Wall Strohfus, a WASP who was in her mid-90s at the time. “I asked how she got interested in flying,” Fr. Manahan says. “She answered with one word, ‘speed.’”Not all the aircraft are loud and fast. One year, Philipp, who lives close to the airfield, was working in her garden when she looked up and received quite a shock. A Stealth Bomber, silent and nearly motionless, was hovering above her yard.

The perks of staying at the Jesuit Retreat House are many—from the beautiful setting and comfortable facilities to the good food, daily Mass and general camaraderie. But there’s one more thing that makes it hard to imagine why anyone would want to stay anywhere else. Because of the House’s location, just around a peninsula from the AirVenture’s seaplane base, guests get to watch the amphibious aircraft gracefully take off and land all week.