99s Fly!

New Scholarship Honors Priscilla Cook

March 13, 2025

The Greater Seattle Chapter has just announced an exciting new scholarship honoring Priscilla Cook, a Western Washington Ninety-Nine and avid explorer. The following biography and map were created by Tandy Hennings, Priscilla's daughter and one of the scholarship's founders.

Priscilla Cook beside her airplane in 1945 Priscilla Cook, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1945

Priscilla Osler Cook

(1925-2020)
private pilot SEL, SES; FAA #304527

Priscilla Cook was a Ninety-Nine and a life-long private pilot. This scholarship, funded by her family members, honors that legacy. Born Priscilla Osler in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1925, her entry into aviation occurred early, in the 1940s, with the assistance of her eldest brother, Scott Osler, an engineering test pilot. In 1942, while still in high school in Ann Arbor, Priscilla earned her student pilot permit, single engine land.

Both of Priscilla’s older brothers were supporting the war effort and Priscilla would have liked to become a WASP. However, she was slightly too young to qualify. Nevertheless, while visiting her brother Scott in Seattle in 1944, she earned her private pilot’s license. She took her training in the little town of Cle Elum, located on the east side of the Cascade mountains, since private flying in the greater Seattle area during the war was prohibited. Priscilla utilized her brother’s Luscomb, a hand-propped tail dragger, earning her license on September 29, 1944, FAA certification number 304527. The next month she and Scott flew his Luscombe back to Ann Arbor.

As a college student at Michigan State in East Lansing, class of 1947, Priscilla was a charter member of the school’s flying club, The Winged Spartans. Initially, she was the only member who had a pilot’s license. She flew the club plane, a Taylorcraft, and she competed in National Intercollegiate Flying Association meets.

After college, Priscilla’s sense of adventure led her to a civilian job with Special Services to the U.S. Air Force, 1950-1952, during the Korean War; she worked at two U.S. airbases in Japan.

In 1953, Priscilla married Bill Cook, a Boeing aerodynamicist who was himself a private pilot. They made their home in Bellevue, Washington, and raised three children.

In the late 1960s, Priscilla renewed her private certificate and added a seaplane rating, preparing to fly a Piper PA-18 Super Cub on floats that her husband and son were rebuilding. In 1971, the Cub, as it was called, became operational. It was Priscilla’s plane. She flew it extensively in the Pacific Northwest, Canada and Alaska. Remote lakes surrounded by forests and rugged mountains in shifting, VFR weather conditions were Priscilla’s domain.

Priscilla joined the Ninety-Nines in 1967. She was an active member of the Western Washington Chapter, serving as Chapter Chair and Secretary. In 1971 she became a member of the Washington Seaplane Pilots Association.

In July 1977, Priscilla and a Ninety-Nine co-pilot friend flew the Cub from Bellevue to the Ninety-Nine Northwest Sectional convention in Anchorage, Alaska. The flight was characterized by typical rough weather and low ceilings, and Priscilla relied largely on dead reckoning due to limited, ground-based navigation aids. The flight from Bellevue astounded the other Ninety-Nines attending the convention, earning Priscilla and her friend the “Proficiency Race Award”, (many had flown to Anchorage on the airlines!).

Priscilla’s aviation expertise and experience flying in remote wilderness areas all the way to the arctic, coupled with her buoyant personality, were greatly admired. In 2011, she was presented with the “Governor’s Award” at the Ninety-Nine sectional meeting in Vancouver, Canada. This award is given annually to honor a member of the Northwest Section who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in aviation.

Priscilla passed away in her Bellevue home in 2020, age 94. The final tally of her pilot-in-command hours is just over 1,200. While her bright, loving spirit has flown to other realms, she is remembered here on earth with this scholarship, helping young women achieve their dreams of flight in the twenty-first century.

Priscilla Cook 1980 Priscilla at Lake Yukon, 1980