Longest-serving AOPA board member mourned

A great-grandson of the founder of Sun Oil Corp. and a leader of multiple businesses and charities, Pew was heavily involved in the Philadelphia community.

He was a dedicated servant to his community, as both a volunteer and a trustee of several organizations, including his alma mater Temple University, the Academy of Music, Curtis Institute, Bryn Mawr College and Bryn Mawr Hospital, and AOPA, among many others.

Pew joined AOPA in 1956 and became a board member in 1970 and served until 2014, making him the longest-serving board member in AOPA history. After retirement from the volunteer position he was honored as a trustee emeritus.

"My service on the board has been based on my desire to help and preserve general aviation," said Pew in an October 2014 article for AOPA Pilot.

Paul Heintz, who became a member of AOPA in 1958 and a board member in 1974, reflected fondly on his time on the AOPA board with Pew. "I knew Andy Pew very well, over 50 years," Heintz said. "Andy and I got quite close through our mutual love of aviation. We pilots are freaks, and not many people understand us."

Pew’s tenure on the AOPA board lasted through four different AOPA presidents. He was a champion for GA and an exemplary board member—one who knew the limitations and expectations of someone chosen to make decisions for an organization like AOPA.

Heintz described Pew as a bright, educated, private individual, and "a man of habit and loyalty, extreme habit and loyalty."

One such example was Pew's loyalty to his four-seat Piper Comanche that he bought in 1965. He flew it for 50 years and then donated it to the AOPA Foundation in 2016.

"I was fortunate to have Andy’s counsel and friendship in my early days at AOPA," said AOPA President Mark Baker. "I am forever grateful for his ongoing contributions to the organization and myself."

Outside of professional responsibilities and his passion for aviation, Pew also loved sailing and spending time with family. "The family had a second home, 'Inchcape,' in Northeast Harbor, where he loved spending time together with his family sailing on his classic A-Class gaff rigged sloop 'Gull,' one of only two of its kind remaining in the world," reads his obituary in the Mount Desert Islander of Bar Harbor, Maine.

Pew is survived by his wife, Daria Decerio Pew, and his four children, James Cunningham Pew, Glenn Edgar Pew, Joan "Lili" Pew, and Richard Westerman Pew, along with many nieces, nephews, and extended family members.

He was predeceased by his parents, his brother, Arthur E. Pew III, and his son, Robert Anderson Pew Jr.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.