Thomas Fleetwood Garner, 94, passed away peacefully on January 29, 2008 at his home in Richmond, Va. A retired aviation executive, investor, and philan-thropist, he operated aviation facilities and distributor-ships around Virginia and along the East coast, including Roanoke, Hot Springs, Richmond's Byrd Field (now RIC) and Bartow, Fla., where his civilian programs under government contract trained several thousand U.S. Air Force pilots during 1951 to 1959. He was inducted into the Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society Aviation Hall of Fame in 1986. As an entrepreneur, Mr. Garner started in partnership with his father, Chesley T. Garner, in the fertilizer, trucking and ham businesses in Isle of Wight County, Va. During World War II, he branched out on his own, first into aviation, operating primary flight schools for the U.S. Navy. Then, after marrying and moving to Richmond in 1945, he invested in local businesses, including the Clover Room and Richmond Dairy. He also established Garner's Old Virginia Hams in Ivor, Va. In 1947, he sponsored a record-breaking P-51 Mustang flight from Washington to Havana, carrying a 15 pound ham as a gift from Governor Tuck to the President of Cuba. By 1960, he retired from active operation of his various businesses, which had some 1,000 employees by the end of the 1950s, to concentrate on land investment and real estate development in California, especially in Rancho Mirage, Calif., where he and his wife, Anna, also had a winter home. He loved to tell jokes, and amused many a friend and new-found acquaintance during his retirement years with his very informative business card, stating: "No Name, No address, No Phone, No Worries." Fleetwood and Anna Garner engaged themselves in many philanthropic activities to develop and sustain such local institutions as the Science Museum of Virginia, Virginia Opera Association, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Virginia Home, Collegiate Schools, and the Virginia Aviation Museum, among others. He served as director of the Richmond Memorial Hospital and was a founding supporter of the Eisenhower Memorial Hospital in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Locally, he was a member of the Commonwealth Club and the Country Club of Virginia. In 2005, Mr. Garner was preceded in death by his wife of 60 years, Anna Lauder Garner. He is survived by his two sons, Thomas F. Garner Jr. and his wife, Carolyn, of Richmond, and William V. Garner and his wife, Wendy, of Washington, D.C.; and by his four grandchildren, Gavin Thomas Garner, Tamsin Anna Garner Harrington and her husband, Jake, Elizabeth Storm Garner, and Hannah Granville Garner.