Lloyd W. Pogue, 103; Helped Craft Rules for World’s Civil Aviation

Lloyd Welch Pogue, 103, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who helped set regulations for national and international civil aviation, died Saturday in a Baltimore hospital of natural causes.

From 1942 to 1946, Pogue headed the fledgling Civil Aeronautics Board (originally the Civil Aeronautics Authority) which governed civil aviation in the United States from its beginning in 1938 until federal deregulation in 1978, when the board was gradually dissolved. (Safety and other remaining post-deregulation issues are now the responsibility of the Federal Aviation Administration.)

In 1944, Pogue was the U.S. representative to the Chicago International Civil Aviation Conference.

That gathering, attended by envoys of 55 nations, reached deals on management of international flights after World War II -- such as requiring that all international air traffic control communication be in English.

Pogue, a popular speaker with aviation groups into this century, continued to take pride in the Chicago Convention, which provided a structure for international pacts on technical, safety and legal issues, enabling the peaceful passage of aircraft around much of the globe.

Born on a farm in Grant, Iowa, Pogue earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska and law degrees from the University of Michigan and Harvard.

He established his Washington law firm -- Pogue & Neal -- in 1946 to represent major airlines and other aviation industry clients, and in 1967 merged it with his son’s Cleveland law firm to create what is now Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. Pogue retired from law practice in 1981.