Charles Bernard

Charles E. Bernard (July 29, 1893 – October 7, 1979) was an American aviation pioneer who developed Bernard's Airport, in Beaverton, Oregon, United States.

Early life and work Charles Bernard was born in 1893 in Beaverton, Oregon. He lived on his family's hay farm in Beaverton, on land that amounted to at least as early as the mid-1920s. He developed an interest in aviation as a teenager. In the mid-1910s, he became friends with some students at the Adcox School of Aviation, in Portland, and after learning that they were assembling an experimental glider, he invited them to his family's hayfield for test flights in which a galloping horse would launch the glider for flights of up to a thousand feet. Until his father's death in 1928, Bernard kept his interest in aviation to himself. Beaverton's second airfield began to take shape in 1928, as Charles Bernard erected the first hangar along what is now Cedar Hills Blvd. (then Cedar Street), to the northwest of the center of Beaverton. As Watts Field began to run out of space for expansion, the nearby field that had come to be known as Bernard's Airport grew. Both were privately owned, non-commercial airports. but Watts Airport closed not long afterwards, leading to considerable expansion at the Bernard airfield. The Oregonian of September 11, 1938, stated that Bernard Airport was "perhaps the busiest non-commercial airport in the United States".

A large area to the north of Charles "Charlie" Bernard's property was developed between 1946 and 1955 as the Cedar Hills residential area. In 1963, Bernard considered selling his then- property for redevelopment as housing, after his airport began to lose money, a change he attributed to a big increase in his property taxes. Bernard was still living nearby at the time, in his family's old farmhouse on Walker Road. Bernard's Airport closed in February 1969, and the Beaverton Mall was developed on the airport site. The shopping center was originally named "Bernard's Beaverton Mall" (and referred to as "Bernard Mall", for short), after the local aviation pioneer who still owned the property.

Personal In February 1919, Charles Bernard married Vivian O'Connor (1901–1991), and they remained married until his death. The couple had at least three children: a son and two daughters.

Bernard died on October 7, 1979, in a Beaverton-area hospital.