Theodore Edmonds Gildred was born on October 18, 1935, in Mexico City; the second of four children of real estate developer Theodore Gildred and Maxine Edmonds Gildred. His early years were spent in San Diego, California and Mexico City. He attended Francis Parker School in San Diego, followed by a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University, 1959. His post-graduate studies were taken at Sorbonne University, Paris, and the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Mr. Gildred is fluent in English, Spanish, French, and German.

As an aviator, Mr. Gildred holds an airline transport rating with more than 2,000 hours experience. His greatest aeronautical achievement was duplicating his father’s 1931 Goodwill Flight from San Diego, California, to Quito, Ecuador, which took place March 13, 1981 to March 31, 1981. Theodore E. Gildred, along with copilot Wally Moore, flew a 1942 Stinson Reliant. It was hoped that both flights would promote good will between the US and Latin America. Like his father, Theodore E. Gildred received a warm welcome upon landing in Ecuador, and donated his aircraft, Ecuador II, to the Ecuadorian government as a gesture of goodwill between the two nations.

This collection primarily contains information on the second of the 4,200 mile flights.