John Stuber, Minnesota aviation and airport pioneer

In the 1940s, John Stuber, who named Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie, saw there would be a future for general aviation in Minnesota.

Stuber, who co-owned American Aviation from 1968 to 1988, died on Monday in Burnsville.

He was 93.

Just after the war, Stuber managed the original American Aviation Co., at what is now Anoka County Airport.

The aviation firm bought an asparagus field in Eden Prairie. At first, fuel was dispensed from 55-gallon drums, and the office was a small trailer.

The company was planning to call the new airport Southwest Minneapolis Airport until Stuber intervened.

"We just lucked out with the name. It was not some great market research," said Stuber. "I just suggested naming it Flying Cloud."

In 1964, Stuber was president of the Minnesota Aviation Trades Association.

"He was very active, very effective" in growing the industry, Booen said. "And he was a very nice guy."

Around 1940, Stuber, who grew up in La Crosse, Wis., moved to Alexandria, Minn., taking a job as a newspaperman.

In Alexandria, he learned to fly, and during World War II, he was a pilot instructor in the Army Air Forces in San Antonio.

After helping to launch Flying Cloud, he worked in other industries, including a stint as a car dealer in New Orleans.

In 1968, he became a partner with his brother Don, who then owned American Aviation.

The Stubers sold the company in 1989.

His brother Don died in July After the brothers' retirement, a runway at Flying Cloud was named for them.

His daughter Mary died in 1958.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Gayle of Burnsville; daughters Sue of Mount Airy, Md., Marcia Drewitz of Dallas, Bonnie Peirce of San Diego, Christine of Bloomington, and Catherine of Burnsville; brothers Robert of La Crosse Wis., and George of Brownsville, Minn.; sisters Mary Jane Fowler of La Crosse, Wis., and Betty Lynch of Lincoln, Neb.; six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.