Birth
Acosta was born in San Diego, California to Miguel Acosta and Martha Blanche Reilly. He attended the Throop Polytechnic Institute in Pasadena, California from 1912 to 1914.
He taught himself to fly in August 1910 and built experimental airplanes up until 1912 when he began work for Glenn Curtiss as an apprentice on a hydroplane project. In 1915 he worked as a flying instructor. He went to Canada and worked as an instructor for the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service in Toronto. In 1917 he was appointed chief instructor, Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps at Hazelhurst Field, Long Island.
Acosta married Mary Louise Brumley (1886–1962) in 1918 but they in 1920. He won The Pulitzer Trophy Race in 1921. In 1925 he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and was living at 1 Winslow Court in Naugatuck, Connecticut. He married Helen Belmont Pearsoll, on August 3, 1921. They eventually separated but never divorced.
Read more about this topic: Bert Acosta
Famous quotes containing the word birth:
“The passions do very often give birth to others of a nature most contrary to their own. Thus avarice sometimes brings forth prodigality, and prodigality avarice; a man’s resolution is very often the effect of levity, and his boldness that of cowardice and fear.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Spirit enters flesh
And for all it’s worth
Charges into earth
In birth after birth
Ever fresh and fresh.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Alas! The time is coming when man will no longer give birth to stars. Alas! The time of the most contemptible man is coming, one who can no longer despise himself. Behold! I show you the last man.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)