Ann Holtgren Pellegreno

Ann Holtgren Pellegreno, born in 1937— an accomplished pilot, teacher, and author whose contributions to aviation have earned her widespread recognition. One of her most noteworthy accolades was a 1967 commemorative flight around the world, following the same path Amelia Earhart attempted three decades earlier. She flew a sistership to Earhart's, a Lockheed 10 Electra. On July 2, 1967, Ann dropped a wreath on the elusive Howland Island, exactly 30 years after Earhart had gone missing in its vicinity. On July 7, two days after Ann completed the journey and landed back in Oakland, California, Earhart's sister, Muriel Earhart Morrissey, thanked Ann for completing her sister's flight. Ann recounts the remarkable experience in her 1971 book “World Flight, the Earhart Trail.”

She and her husband Don graduated from the University of Michigan in 1958, Ann in music and education. Don continuing on to earn a masters in guidance and counseling in 1959, followed by a doctorate in 1968. Upon graduation, he taught guidance and counseling to masters and doctoral students at Iowa State University from 1968 to 1996. Both Ann and Don learned to fly in 1961 and began their lifelong love of aviation, both in flying aircraft and restoring them. They lived for 26 years on a farm near Story City, Iowa, where they built a hangar, and established a lighted runway.

They restored many aircrafts, the largest which was a 1947, one-of-a kind, Fairchild XNQ-1, built in Hagerstown, Maryland. The restoration took from 1983 to 1992, after which they flew it for 25 years. A joint decision had been made to donate the rare airplane to the Hagerstown Aviation Museum, which the museum welcomed back to its hometown in June, 2024. A trusted friend flew it there. A fitting resting point considering its birth at the Fairchild Factory in Hagerstown where it had first flown on February 10, 1947.

In 1998, the couple moved to Rhome, Texas, where they built a home and hangar on a residential airstrip. They continued to fly and complete restorations here.

Ann continues to write books about aviation, which has played such an important part in their lives. In 2025, she added to her legacy by publishing a new book: “THE SKY AND I: How I learned to fly – then flew around the world.”

Ann is one of four aviators that ISU's Aerospace Engineering Department honored with a granite paver in the Plaza of Heroines.

Paver Inscription:

"Aerospace
Steph Wells
Sheila Widnall
Ann Pellegreno
Susan Pamerleau"