A little about our Convocation Speaker today, Eric Poole:
- Chief Pilot/Captain at JetBlue Airway – Currently beginning my 18th year at JetBlue where I fly the Airbus 320/321
- US Navy Veteran – Surface Warfare Engineering Officer/Operations and Test Control Officer
- Recent inductee to the University of North Dakota Aerospace Hall of Fame – Class of 2022
- Graduate of University of North Dakota, School of Aerospace, Bachelor of Science Degree in Aeronautics, minors in Space Studies and Meteorology
- Full Athletic Scholarship (Football) – Defensive Back
- Born in Uijeongbu, South Korea just south of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). A humble village established outside of an American Military Base, “Red Cloud”. My story can be found in an article in the Men’s Journal magazine, written by a local author Benjamin Percy.
- Father, an African American Soldier. Mother, a young Korean prostitute. I was about 4 years old, when I found my mother dead one morning. Institutionalized in an American Orphanage at 5-6 years old. Where I was literally plucked from a catalog by a family in New Hope, Minnesota. I really struggled to connect and adapt to my new surrounding and with my new family. My teenage years were spent couch surfing in friends’ homes. I finally found a home in my junior year in high school. Where one of my good friend’s Chuck took me in. He became my brother and his family became my family. That’s the Poole family.