Max Yingling Pennington

April 13, 1930 ~ July 31, 2024
Max Yingling Pennington, 94, retired aircraft engineer, died Wednesday, July 31, 2024.
Visitation will be at 9:00 am, Saturday, August 10, 2024m at Downing & Lahey West Chapel, Funeral Service will be at 10:00 am, Saturday, August 10, 2024, at Downing & Lahey West Chapel.
Preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy Eloise Pennington; parents, Ennis Pennington and Maxine Long; brothers, William Pennington, Russell Pennington; sister, Marilyn Mahan; and grandchild, Daniel Davis.
Survived by his son, Michael (Debbie) Pennington; daughters, Michele (Stephen) Smith, Angela (Frank) Chambers, Pamela (Gregory) Kiyak, Jeanna (Skip) Steely; sister, Carolyn Long Silvers; sixteen grandchildren; nineteen great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.
A memorial has been established with: Apostolic Faith Bible College, P. O. Box 110, Baxter Springs, KS 66713 - afbiblecollege.com
MAX’s STORY
Max Yingling Pennington, also known to some as Daddy, Grandpa, Brother, Uncle, Boy Scout Leader, Engineer, Pastor, Evangelist, or Friend, was born in the spring of 1930 at his Grandmother's home in Wichita KS.
He died peacefully at the age of 94 on July 31st, 2024, again in Wichita KS, where he lived most of his childhood with his father and younger siblings, with summers being spent with his mother in Taneyville Missouri.
Max's childhood was not necessarily an easy one, but he was challenged through family difficulties to develop a strong sense of responsibility in helping to care for his three younger siblings. He developed a strong work ethic working in his father's mat shop, became a self-disciplined scholar at school and grew to be a young man of strong faith in God. Max not only had a strong desire to serve God in ministry but also to develop his analytical and sharp mind in the area of aviation engineering.
Upon graduating from North High School in Wichita, KS, Max chose to attend two years of Bible School in Baxter Springs, KS. While studying there, he caught the eye of a care-free, freckled-faced, red-headed, curly-haired, feisty beauty by the name of Dorothy May. The two were absolute opposites in personality. But you know what they say about opposites attracting. And once Dorothy saw how this serious, scholarly young man could cleverly wield a slide rule, the rest was history! They were married in the fall of 1949.
The young couple moved down to the hill country of Texas to be close to Dorothy's family and had their first two children, Michael and Michele. Max worked a back-breaking job with the Texas Highway Department building roads, but also managed to find the time to build a house for his young family. An amusing fact about their first out-house was that it was built out of discarded dynamite boxes that Max retrieved from the Highway Department. The boxes in the out-house read "Explosives!, Handle with Care!"
During these early years, Max also took correspondence courses in Aircraft Engineering to prepare for a better career for himself and his young family. He finally was handed his first big break when he landed a job at Mooney Aircraft, just in time to welcome daughters Angela and Pamela into the family.
The youngest daughter, Jeannie, was born after Max and the family moved to Colorado, where Max had opportunities to start working for larger aircraft companies. From there, Max and his family made numerous moves - to Georgia, back to Texas, California, back to Colorado, Arkansas, Missouri, and Ohio.
Throughout his life, Max worked at various Aircraft Companies (Lockhead, Martin Marietta, Rockwell, Cessna, Boeing) where he made quite a name for himself, worked on many secret projects, and earned numerous awards and honors. This was especially rare because he had no formal college training or degree as an engineer beyond correspondence courses.
Over the years, he also pastored or ministered in various churches, worked in children's evangelism ministry, traveled as a visiting evangelist, conducted kid's crusades, and ministered to the Navaho Indian tribe in Shiprock, New Mexico.
Max was not just a left-brained engineer. He also had a definite right-brained artistic side. He loved singing and music and encouraged his children to pursue musical and voice training. Even when money was tight, for several summers he flew his daughters to Stamps Baxter School of Music in Pass Christian, MS for their one-month summer music training school. I can still remember hearing him belting out a powerful "How Great Thou Art", with poor Mama trying to follow along on the piano. This was before taped accompaniment was a thing.
Other hobbies that Max enjoyed included photography, woodworking, leatherworking, reading and watching westerns, and traveling to beautiful places. His children all inherited a love for travel to some degree, perhaps because they were all forced at early ages to learn to adapt to changing environments and different locations.
In 1987, Max suffered a brain aneurysm after undergoing open-heart surgery. The Doctors had given up on saving his life. Surgery was too risky. Many pastors and people of faith cried out to God for his life to be spared, and God performed a miracle. A visiting Dr. from another hospital just happened to find out about Max's case and offered his services to perform a risky operation. However, the family was warned that Max, if he did happen to survive the surgery, would most likely be left with major neurological problems, paralysis, speech issues and most certainly would never be able to drive again. Max not only survived, but was declared a "miracle man" by even the most skeptical of his doctors. In less than six months, he was on the road again, driving 15 hours to see his daughter's family in Alabama.
There were however, some long-term effects from the surgery. Max lost his ability to read and write, so understandably, was unable to continue working as an engineer. But he never gave up as a minister. He was highly motivated to read again so he could study his favorite book - the Bible. Max studied diligently every day to regain his ability to read. It took some time and determination, but Max learned to read again, maybe not as fast or as fluently as before, but enough to be able to read his Bible and his Zane Gray and Louis L'Amour Westerns, which he immensely enjoyed during his golden years. As his eyesight faded and reading became too difficult in his last few years, he still enjoyed watching his religious programs on TV and his westerns.
One thing that can be said about Max is that he definitely loved his children and grandchildren. As he got older, the handwritten notes in cards and gifted Birthday Bibles always affirmed his love for children and grandchildren, pointing them to the perfect love of a heavenly father. Perhaps he realized that he possessed imperfections as a husband and father - let the perfect husband or father cast the first stone. All I know is that in his last years, he was truly grateful and appreciated each phone call from those who lived far away, each card, and each visit.
Max was definitely one of a kind. In his life he overcame many odds and faced many challenges. But he overcame by dedicated himself to working hard, self-study, never giving up on his dreams, and putting his faith in God.
So Max, Daddy, Grandpa, Brother, Uncle Max - You are loved and you will be missed!
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