Laying tracks on the extreme front of Prescott and Eastern Railroad in Arizona Territory, c. 1898. On February 24th, 1863 Arizona was organized as a U.S. Territory.
Clarence Leonard Johnson; born February 27th, 1910,
Clarence was 13 years old when he won a prize for his first aircraft design. While attending grade school in Michigan, classmates teased him by calling him "Clara". One morning a classmate chose the wrong moment to call him "Clara". Johnson tripped him, and the boy ended up with a broken leg. From that moment forth, they started calling him "Kelly". The nickname came from the popular song at the time, "Kelly With the Green Neck Tie". Henceforth he was always known as "Kelly" Johnson.
"Kelly" whent on to become an aeronautical and systems engineer, who earned the reputation as being one of the most talented and prolific aircraft design engineers in the history of aviation. Notably the Lockheed A-12, U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird. As a member and first team leader of the famed Lockheed Skunk Works, Kelly was said to have been an "organizing genius", and played a leading role in the design of over forty aircraft, including several honored with the prestigious Collier Trophy.
In 2003, Aviation Week & Space Technology ranked Johnson 8th on its list of the top 100 "most important, most interesting, and most influential people" in the first century of aerospace
