When John Odegard applied for admission to the university of North Dakota more than 40 years ago, his credentials were almost a joke. He’d already dropped out of two other colleges with poor grades and a complete lack of interest. What he really wanted to do was to fly airplanes, and in fact was earning a meager living at the time as a crop duster in western North Dakota. 

Even so, the university’s vice-president, Tom Clifford, was impressed by Odegard’s passion for flying—and by the determination of his young wife, Diane, that her husband get his college degree. Against the advice of others at UND, Clifford admitted Odegard and became his mentor.  

The gamble paid off. Within three years Odegard had earned his degree and begun a fledgling department of aviation—all with the blessing of Clifford, who would become the president of UND and continue to support his protégé’s dreams.

Forty years later, the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace sciences stands on the prairie outside of Grand Forks, N.D., as one of the world’s premiers institutions for educating future leaders in the aerospace and aviation industries.

 With its gleaming $160 million space-age campus and modern airport facilities, the Odegard school attracts students from countries around the globe. It has trained pilots airline executives and air traffic controllers not only from the United States but from Taiwan, Japan, China, Russia, Morocco and the Arabian Gulf.

 “Flight of the Odegard” tells the dramatic story of how one man’s dream took off and soared through a storm of political opposition and financial challenges to advance the cause of aviation education and put the state of North Dakota on the world map