From today's SF Chronicle.

Not really a Portland-related post, but "west coast related" and historically important....


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Radio's Hap Harper -- the first air traffic reporter
Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, October 7, 2006

Hap Harper, said to be the world's first airborne traffic reporter and a jovial, joke-telling presence on Bay Area radio stations for more than three decades, has died.

Mr. Harper, 81, died Wednesday of heart failure in a hospital in Jackson (Amador County).

"Happiness is just a thing called Harper,'' was the advertising jingle at radio station KSFO, where he was a regular on the morning show with the late, legendary disc jockey Don Sherwood.

He loved to tell jokes, particularly bad jokes, to lighten the bad news about traffic tie-ups. At times, his booming laugh seemed louder than the sound of his single-engine traffic spotter.

Mr. Harper was perhaps best known for being the "bombardier" with Sherwood in their tongue-in-cheek aerial assault on the city of Stockton in 1958. The campaign, a thinly disguised prank to boost ratings, involved Sherwood and Mr. Harper dressing up in 19th century military uniforms and dropping leaflets on downtown Stockton from the window of Mr. Harper's traffic plane.

"Consider yourself bombed, Stockton! Surrender or else!'' the leaflets said.

A native of New Orleans, Mr. Harper moved with his family as a child to Flint, Mich., where he fell in love with airplanes on a kiddie ride at a local amusement park.

While a teenager, he enrolled in a flight school, obtained his pilot's license and supported his studies at Oberlin College by giving flying lessons.

He was a Marine Corps lieutenant during World War II before moving to San Francisco in the 1950s.

His radio career began in 1957 as a series of fortunate accidents. Sherwood, a fellow tenant in Mr. Harper's apartment building, took flying lessons from him and then got the idea to have Harper go aloft and provide live weather reports during Sherwood's show.

"Hap would say it was cloudy or foggy, but everyone already knew what the weather was anyway,'' said his wife, Jan. "But then one day he looked out the window and saw a traffic accident, and he warned people to avoid it, and Sherwood said, 'That's it, that's your new career.' ''

Another radio partner, Carter B. Smith, recalled Mr. Harper's warmth as an announcer and his skill as a pilot.

"He was a remarkably cheerful, outgoing and positive man, an excellent flier and fun to work with,'' Smith said.

And Smith said it was an honor whenever Mr. Harper decided to fly low over Richardson Bay in the early morning hours and buzz his house.

For four decades, Mr. Harper supplemented his radio career by selling real estate in the Sierra foothills, often flying prospective clients in his plane to inspect property. He retired from radio in 1991.

A devoted horseman, Mr. Harper enjoyed frequent trail rides in the Sierra with his wife.

He is survived by his wife, Jan, of Volcano (Amador County), son Jeffrey Harper of Redwood City, and daughter Kellie Harper of Pottersville, Mo.

No service is planned.