Robert J. Serling

Robert Jerome Serling (born Jerome Robert Serling; He "deplored the name Jerome" and swapped his first and middle names as a young man.

Serling became full-time aviation editor for United Press International in 1960. He wrote at least eight novels and sixteen books of nonfiction. His novel The President's Plane Is Missing was made into a 1973 made-for-TV film starring Buddy Ebsen. He received the 1988 Lauren D. Lyman Award "for distinguished achievement in the field of aviation and aerospace journalism."

He had two children with his second wife, Priscilla Arone, a former Western Airlines stewardess. His daughter Jennifer is a veterinary technician.

Career

He was a United Press International, Washington, DC, reporter and manager of Radio News Division, 1945–60, aviation editor, 1960–66; air safety lecturer and consultant, beginning 1966. His brother Rod Serling hired him as a technical consultant (for which he received on-screen credit) for the airplane sequences in the episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33" of his hit TV-show The Twilight Zone. Robert Serling also received advisor or researcher credits on two other Rod Serling scripts: one each for scripts penned for Studio One and Playhouse 90. He was a reporter for the Washington Redskins and travelled with the team and roomed with quarterback Eddie LeBaron.

He was a very devout conservative Republican, in contrast to his brother’s liberal Democratic stance.

He was a member of the Society of Air Safety Investigators and the Aviation/Space Writers Association

He collected commercial airline models (more than four hundred during his life) and material on aviation research. In 2008, was featured speaker at the 32nd annual Airliners International collectibles show and convention in Dallas, Texas.

He authored the short story "Ghost Writer" published in Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary. His Something's Alive on the Titanic and The President's Plane Is Missing and ‘’Air Force One is Haunted’’ are fantasy novels set in real life high-profile backdrops.

Awards He received numerous honors of his work throughout his career: Trans-World Airlines, seven awards, 1958–65, for aviation news reporting Strebig-Dobben Memorial Award, 1960 special citations from Sherman Fairchild Foundation, 1963 Flight Safety Foundation, 1970 Airline Pilots Association, 1970 Aviation/Space Writers Association James Trebig Memorial Award, 1964 special citation, 1967 award in fiction, 1966, for The Left Seat award in non-fiction, 1969, for Loud and Clear

Fiction

Non-fiction