Volunteers are the Backbone of the Museum

The Hill Aerospace Museum volunteer staff presently boasts 100 active, personable, experienced, dedicated individuals from all walks of life, including active duty Air Force personnel. They range in age from the teens to 80+ years young. 
Volunteering at the museum offers many rewarding and challenging areas in which diverse talents and expertise may be utilized. The various job descriptions for our volunteers are as follows:

— Receptionist  — Tour Guide — Security — Gift Shop — Education — Restoration — Photography — Clerical/Administrative

The volunteers have been presented many individual awards, including the State of Utah Director of Volunteers Outstanding Volunteer Award, the Utah Volunteer of the Year Award, three Air Force Angel Awards, the Utah Governor’s Silver Bowl Award, Volunteer Excellence Award, and Utah Museum Volunteer of the Year Award.

The volunteer staff has also won numerous other awards as a group. Among these are the Air Force Group Angel Award, the Utah Chapter of Valley Forge Outstanding Award, the Utah Governor’s Helping Hands Award, and the national J.C. Penney Golden Rule Award, along with a $1,000 grant for the Volunteer Staff. These awards are not given lightly, as they entailed state-wide or nation-wide competition.

This unusual conglomerate of volunteers staff the museum seven days a week, a different team for each day. They work weekends and holidays and give up many hours of their time, often sacrificing their personal plans to accommodate the requirements of the museum. Their extreme dedication goes far beyond the expectations for “normal” volunteers. The visiting public is always giving them accolades for their warmth, friendliness, and hospitality, as well as voicing heartfelt thanks for the many long hours of restoration work performed on our aircraft and other artifacts.

The people who choose to volunteer at Hill Aerospace Museum find it a very rewarding experience. Consequently, our turn-over rate is very low. Many of our people have volunteered for the past ten years or more. Many have logged more than 5,000 hours, while a few have given upwards of 16,000 hours. Collectively, the volunteers at the museum have donated over 300,000 hours and the total is rising all the time. This donated time has saved the American taxpayer an estimated $2,500,000 in operating expenses for the museum.

If you are interested in volunteering at Hill Aerospace Museum, please call our Volunteer Coordinator, Dennis Guse, at (801) 777-5221. Or click on the link below. We’d love to have your help!

Visit With the Volunteers

Periodically, A Hill Aerospace Museum volunteer is featured in a video segment that highlights that volunteer and the volunteer program at the museum. Those videos are found below.

Volunteer of the Quarter

Each quarter the Hill Aerospace Museum selects a “Volunteer of the Quarter.” Each quarter the current Volunteer of the Quarter will be listed right here on our Web page.

Richard Copp

Richard grew up in Elmira, NY and enlisted in the USAF in 1973. After completing Basic Training at Lackland AFB, TX he attended technical training as an F-111 Integrated Avionics Systems Specialist at Chanute AFB, IL. Richard would spend twelve years of his AF career working the F-111 avionics systems with assignments to Pease AFB, NH, RAF Upper Heyford, UK, and Mountain Home AFB, ID. The next twelve years included several assignments on the F-16 and one on the F-15. The highlight of his USAF career was as the Quality Assurance (QA) Superintendent on the USAF Aerial Demonstration Squadron “Thunderbirds” 1994-1996. While on the Thunderbirds team Richard was promoted to Chief Master Sergeant and finished his USAF career at Nellis AFB, NV with assignments as the Maintenance Chief in Viper Aircraft Maintenance Unit and finally as the Chief of QA for the 57^th Wing.

After retiring from the AF in 1997, Richard worked for The Boeing Company in Seattle, WA as a Customer Training Specialist responsible for developing and delivering computer-based training courseware for the F-22 USAF Avionics Maintenance. He graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a degree in Professional Aeronautics in 1998 while at Boeing and went on to complete post graduate studies in Aeronautical Science with dual specialties in Management and Human Factors.  

In 2002 he accepted a position with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Marietta, GA first as a Senior Customer Service Engineer on the F-22 program with subsequent F-22 positions as a Staff Quality Engineer then Senior Staff Manufacturing Engineer in final assembly where he remained until 2010 when the last F-22 rolled off the assembly line. Richard was also the Senior Staff Manufacturing Engineer for the F-35 Center Wing and, in that role, led the team responsible for moving the F-35 Center Wing build from Fort Worth, TX to Marietta, GA. His last job with LM Aero in Marietta, GA was as Senior Staff Quality Analyst on the C-5M Super Galaxy modification program. In November 2015, Richard accepted his next and last position with LM Aero as F-35 Senior Staff Quality Engineer at the Ogden Logistics Center on Hill AFB, UT and retired in August 2018.

He has been married to Dani Ross Copp for 25 years and they reside in Layton, Utah.

Richard has been a volunteer at the Hill Aerospace Museum since October 2018.

Click here for an application to become

a volunteer at Hill Aerospace Museum.