Alfred Victor Verville (born November 16, 1890 in Atlantic Mine, Michigan, died March 10, 1970) was an aviation pioneer and designer who contributed to civilian and military aviation. During his 47 years in the aviation industry, he led the design and development of nearly a dozen commercial and military airplanes. He is known for his design of flying boats, a cantilever monoplane with retractable landing gear: the Verville-Sperry R-3, military racing airplanes, and a series of commercial cabin airplanes. His wife was Bertha M. Kamrath, married 1917, with whom he had two daughters, Marget and Donna and a son Bud. Verville worked for General William "Billy" Mitchell while working at the United States Army Air Service. Early in life, Verville took a correspondence course in Electrical Engineering. His aviation career began in 1914, at the age of 24 after leaving the Hudson Motor Company. With Glenn Curtiss he helped design the Curtiss Jenny and Curtiss twin engine seaplane. Verville also worked for Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, Thomas-Morse Airplane Company, General Aeroplane Company (1915-1917), and Fisher Body Corporation (as executive engineer, 1917-1918) before joining the Engineering Division of the U.S. Army Air Service as a civilian in 1918. In 1925, he left government service to co-found the Buhl-Verville Aircraft Company. In 1928, he left Buhl-Verville to establish Verville Aircraft Company, which failed in 1931 in part due to the difficult economic environment of the times. For the next two decades, he served as a consultant at the Bureau of Air Commerce (1932, 1939-41) and Department of Commerce (1933-36), at Douglas Aircraft (1937-38), at Curtiss-Wright (1941-42), at Snead Aircraft (1942), and at Drexel Aviation Co (1942-45). In 1945 he served as a member of the Naval Technical Mission to Europe and later joined the US Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics (1946-61). His retirement was in 1961, but he continued to support the field of aviation until his death in 1970. Verville was selected as a fellow of the Smithsonian's National Air Museum in 1962. He was honored with ten Certificates or Letters of Commendations from the U.S. Armed Forces. He was a Honorary Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, and was named an Elder Statesman of Aviation in 1956. He held eight aeronautical patents. A fellowship was established in his name at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, which is a competitive nine- to twelve-month in-residence fellowship for researching the history of aviation. Verville has over 20 boxes of material at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - Garber Facility from his estate. In Verville's honor, a 33 cent United States Postal Service airmail stamp was issued on February 13, 1985 bearing his name, picture, the text "Aviation Pioneer", and an image of his Verville-Packard R-1 low-wing monoplane. He died in 1970.