ORANGE : Retiree Says Plans Are Up in the Air

Some retire to putter in the garden, others to putt on the greens, but John V. Fonley wants to fly.

“Gonna build me an airplane,” said Fonley, 67, who will retire Monday after 36 years as a city employee, including his most recent stint as water superintendent.

Fonley came to Orange in 1955 at the start of the city’s building boom. He is credited with helping to create and direct a master plan to supply, store and distribute water for the rapidly growing city.

Fonley became the city’s first assistant water superintendent before he was promoted to the department’s top job in 1966. He was named director of public works in 1971, but in 1981 he returned as head of the water department, where he remained for the next decade.

Though retiring from the city, Fonley said he’ll stay in the water business by remaining on the board of the directors for the Orange County Water District.

But he also has other plans for his leisure time. Fonley piloted a variety of aircraft during World War II. He gave up flying after the war to attend school and pursue a career.

He returned to ground school about eight years ago for an update in modern aviation techniques and earned a new pilot’s license. When he retires at the end of the month, he says he’ll start building a Lancair, a small, fast, experimental plane. It should take him about a year to build the single-engine aircraft from a kit.

He said he expects Joel Wright, assistant water manager and a longtime city employee, to take over the top job in the water department.