Toby Dunlap, United Airlines pilot, remembered fondly

When La Conner pioneer Isaac Dunlap came west by mule train nearly 160 years ago, he could not have imagined a descendant crossing the country in jetliner cockpits nearly a century later.

Nor could he have envisioned his great-grandson, longtime United Airlines pilot Clair “Toby” Dunlap, being joined by presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in the cockpit of a private plane en route from Salt Lake City to a 1960 campaign appearance in southern Oregon.

Yet, even in the eyes of his contemporaries, the veteran commercial airline captain lived a magical life.

According to a recent Scott Hanson ac...