Collett Everman Woolman
Co-founder 1924Background
Collett Everman Woolman was born on October 8, 1889, in Bloomington, Indiana, and developed his agricultural expertise through study at the University of Illinois, where he earned a degree in agriculture. His early career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's extension service brought him to Louisiana, where he worked directly with cotton farmers struggling against the boll weevil infestation devastating the regional economy. This agricultural background gave Woolman both the technical knowledge to understand crop-dusting's commercial potential and the farmer relationships needed to build a client base, making him the ideal person to transform Huff Daland Dusters from a manufacturer's experiment into a genuine business.
Role at Delta Air Lines, Inc.
C.E. Woolman did not start Huff Daland Dusters, but he made it into Delta. Huff Daland Dusters began crop dusting in Macon, Georgia, in 1924 as a unit of aircraft maker Huff Daland, using planes to spread calcium arsenate against the boll weevil. Woolman, a Louisiana agricultural extension agent, joined in 1925, when the operation moved to Monroe, Louisiana. In 1928 he and a group of Monroe investors bought the dusting business and named it Delta Air Service after the Mississippi Delta. Delta flew its first passengers from Dallas to Jackson, Mississippi, on June 17, 1929. After losing an early airmail bid in 1930 and pausing passenger service, Delta won Air Mail Route 24 in 1934, which gave it steady income. Woolman moved the headquarters to Atlanta in 1941 and led Delta as general manager, president, and later chairman until his death in 1966. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).