At Stivers, Ivan didn’t have much time to devote to sports as he was working most evenings on his education or at a part time job to pay for college. Ivan placed first in the State of Ohio on the Scholastic Achievement exam for Biology. Ohio State University was his choice for undergraduate studies. From the time he was a small boy he had wanted to be an aviator. He enrolled in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training program (AFROTC) at O.S.U. His sophomore year he switched to the Navy (NROTC) program, and was elected class President. Ivan was selected as a student senator his junior year. He played on the LaCrosse team, was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity, and graduated in 1957 with a B.S. in Mathematics.
After college, Ivan entered active duty at the U.S. Navy flight training school where he learned to fly sea planes, jet fighters, and conventional twin engine aircraft. He logged over 900 hours as a navigator and 4334 hours as a pilot/copilot in 14 diff erent military aircraft. He served as a patrol plane commander with the Asiatic Fleet, with assignments in the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan monitoring Soviet Union activity during the “Cold War”.
Pan American World Airways hired Ivan in 1966 for their Pacic Rim operations until 1985, then was stationed in West Berlin serving Europe, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. Much of the time he was flying military personnel to and from R & R. He logged 20,000 + hours piloting civilian aircraft including the DC-6, Airbus A310, A320, and Boeing 707, 727, and 747. From 1985 until his retirement, Ivan worked for AV Atlantic, Pan Am International Flight Academy, and Atlas Air training pilots to fly the Boeing 747.
In 2009, Ivan was the recipient of the prestigious Wright Brothers“Master Pilot” Award presented by the Federal Aviation Administration for over 50 years of practicing and promoting safe aircraft flight operations. He is a member of numerous aviation associations and is a patron of the National Aviation Hall of Fame here in Dayton.
Ivan and his wife of 47 years, Jacqualine Marie, have two children, Marie A. Dalton and Ivan Jr (Cody). Marie and Cody have one son, Carter.