Lowell Yerex (24 July 1895 – 1968) was born in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, and attended

Valparaiso University Valparaiso University (Valpo) is a private university in Valparaiso, Indiana. It is a Lutheran university with about 3,000 students from over 50 countries on a campus of . Originally named Valparaiso Male and Female College, Valparaiso Universit ...

Valparaiso, Indiana Valparaiso ( ), colloquially Valpo, is a city and the county seat of Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 34,151 at the 2020 census. History The site of present-day Valparaiso was included in the purchase of land from the ...

United States. He graduated from

in 1916. He volunteered for the British Royal Flying Corps in 1917, was shot down over France and spent four months in a German prisoner-of-war camp. In 1931, he founded Transportes Aéreos Centro Americanos (TACA), but was forced out at the end of 1945. He went on to found

British West Indian Airways BWIA West Indies Airways Limited, known locally as "Bee-Wee" and also as British West Indian Airways and BWIA International, was the national airline based in Trinidad and Tobago. At the end of operations, BWIA was the largest airline operating o ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

in 1940, at the invitation of Lady Young, wife of Trinidad and Tobago's new governor Sir

Hubert Winthrop Young Major Sir Hubert Winthrop Young, KCMG, DSO (6 July 1885 – 20 April 1950) was an English soldier, Liberal Party politician, diplomat and colonial governor. Early life and army Born on 6 July 1885, Young was the second son of colonial administr ...

. In 1941, he founded

Aerovias Brasil Empresa de Transportes Aéreos Aerovias Brasil S/A was a Brazilian airline founded in 1942. It was merged into Varig in 1961, when Varig bought the Consórcio Real-Aerovias-Nacional, of which Aerovias Brasil was one of the partners. History Aero ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. After several mergers and acquisitions, the successor companies were eventually acquired by

VARIG VARIG (acronym for Viação Aérea RIo-Grandense, ''Rio Grandean Airways'') was the first airline founded in Brazil, in 1927. From 1965 until 1990, it was Brazil's leading airline, and virtually its only international one. In 2005, Varig went ...

in 1961. He was born in Wellington, New Zealand and died in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

References

*''Yerex of TACA: A Kiwi Conquistador'' (1985, Ampersand, New Zealand) by David Yerex (nephew) *''Aviator of Fortune: Lowell Yerex and the Anglo-American Commercial Rivalry 1931-1946'' by Eric Benson (2006, Texas A&M University Press)

External links

Yerex ousted from TACA (Time, 1945)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yerex, Lowell 1895 births 1968 deaths Businesspeople in aviation Valparaiso University alumni Royal Flying Corps officers World War I prisoners of war held by Germany British Army personnel of World War I 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century New Zealand businesspeople New Zealand prisoners of war in World War I New Zealand emigrants to the United States