Why have thousands of professional airline pilots come out of the Community College of Beaver County in the past four decades?

Jim Johnson is the answer many, if not most, of those pilots would give. And this Saturday, somewhere close to 100 of them will arrive in uniform at Jeffrey's Landing, a Bridgewater restaurant, to make sure he knows what he means to them.

Mr. Johnson, of Fort Payne, Ala., had never before ventured north of the Mason-Dixon Line when he flew up for an interview at the Community College of Beaver County in 1969. He was in his late 20s then, working for a small aviation company in Pensacola, Fla., because the big airlines weren't hiring anyone "that old."

The chance to get younger guys into those jobs appealed to him, and he was hired to get the aviation sciences program at CCBC off the ground.

The first class had six or eight students. Jim Best, who flies a US Airways Airbus to Europe these days, was in the second class of 12 or 15 prospective pilots. "Just a country boy" from Clarion County, he was 19 and had already learned to fly but was working as a helicopter mechanic in Stratford, Conn.

When he got laid off, he decided to enroll in the new program at CCBC he'd read about in a Pittsburgh newspaper. And that's how he met this "very nice Southern gentleman" whom everyone called "Coach." The man always talked of the future.

"He'd say, 'I know it's a long ways off and airlines are furloughing, but in the future you will be working for the airlines."

He was right, too. The program grew through the 1970s and '80s, and even had a seaplane on the Ohio River in the 1980s. Enrollment leveled off in the early '90s at about 500 students. Mr. Johnson has heard it said that a CCBC graduate is always flying somewhere for someone 24/7, "one person in the air at all times."

Tim Baker enrolled in the program in 1977 after graduating from West Allegheny High. He already had a pilot's license, and he loved that Mr. Johnson wanted to get his students in the air right away.

"If you're not flying Day One, you obviously had a scheduling problem.

"The other thing that set [the program] apart and sets it apart to this day is that Jim had the vision to build a control tower."

Roger that: The control tower at Beaver County Airport, where CCBC pilots-in-training also learned the air-traffic ropes

CCBC still touts itself as the only college in the country with an on-site air traffic control tower. So Mr. Baker not only squeezed as much flying into two years as most colleges manage in four, he was in the tower at Beaver County Airport outside Beaver Falls enough times to graduate with an air traffic control certificate along with a professional pilot's license.

Knowing the way the towers work is invaluable, says Mr. Baker, an AirTran Airways pilot. Showing that air traffic control certificate can help a pilot land a job, too.

"I lay that baby down and it's an instant conversation starter with the interviewer that sets you apart."

Mr. Johnson also made sure his future air traffic controllers at least had a private pilot's license, so they could have a sense of what pilots experienced.

Mr. Johnson retired in 1994, and he and his wife, Brenda, spent about five years in Silver City, N.M., before moving back to his hometown in northeastern Alabama. That's at the southern end of the Appalachian range, and he always said his home turf and Beaver County were so alike you could blindfold a guy from Fort Payne, move him, and he'd never know he was in different terrain until he felt Pennsylvania's winter chill and heard the accents.

But even the rainy weather here proved a boost to his students.

"Getting inside clouds and flying, that was the ultimate."

He drove up from Alabama yesterday with Brenda, taking one long day in a Toyota Prius. He turns 70 in November and he's letting his flight instructor's certificate expire. His daughter, Melinda Callan -- who got her pilot's license before she got her driver's license -- put all his certificates on a plaque, and he'll get his grads to sign that.

"Seeing the people who came through that program succeed in life -- that was the greatest thrill and still is."

Cocktail hour at Jeffrey's Landing begins at 5:30 Saturday. For more information, call the restaurant at 724-728-7878.