This piece originally ran in the July 2026 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.

The EAA Aviation Museum is full of inspiring stories and exhibits, but nothing brings it all to life quite like our volunteer museum docents. One such volunteer, Bob Kuenzi, EAA Lifetime 184575, takes it a step further by surprising guests with different props to drive the stories home and hopefully light that aviation spark in a young person.

Bob’s spark was lit by way of growing up surrounded by World War II veterans. “I grew up around pilots, and I grew up with people in the military, so I kind of took a knack to aviation. Don Warnock was very influential in starting my passion for aviation,” he said.

Don was Bob’s manager early on in his 50-year career in mechanical engineering at Maysteel Industries. Don would tell him all about airplanes and his time in Europe, flying 35 missions as a B-17 tail gunner. In 1982, Don took Bob to EAA Oshkosh for the first time.

“It was great. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” he said. Don could tell and gifted him a year’s membership to EAA. “I’ve been a member since 1982. That’s how it starts, someone gets you interested.”

Maysteel exhibited at AirVenture from 2012 to 2015, and Bob extended the same opportunity to his co-workers that Don gave him. Over those four years, he brought more than 50 folks to AirVenture for the first time.

In 2021, Bob started volunteering for EAA after getting connected with former lead docent Bob Havens. After training with experienced docents and Museum Director Chris Henry, Bob passed his docent “checkride” in November 2022 and started giving tours.

He especially enjoys giving tours to the younger crowds. He and his wife, Vicki, teach Sunday school, so he’s used to working with kids. “If you keep them hooked, they stay with you the whole time. They just want to learn more and more as you go and tell the story,” he said.

So, how does he manage to get a group of kids hooked? Visual aids! In his career, he learned visual aids helped engineers understand manufacturing needs, and now it helps kids understand aviation stories.

“I have a few props to take with me, and it seems to work,” he said. “One time I had one little guy ask me, ‘So, how many of those things do you have in that vest?’ I said, ‘Well, that’s up to you if you stay with me for the whole tour, you’ll find out.’ And they do stick around.”

Bob is also the co-director of EAA Chapter 1158’s Air Camp program in West Bend, Wisconsin. The day camp is a week-and-a-half program for 13- to 16-year-olds to learn basic aviation skills, take discovery and glider flights, and go on fun aviation field trips. Now in its 26th year, the program touts nearly 400 graduates.

In addition, Chapter 1158 also hosts Young Eagles rallies throughout the flying season, hosts the RV-12 youth build for the Kettle Moraine Youth Aviation program, and the chapter is now in its seventh year of supporting Ray scholars seeking pilot certification.

These programs have been successful, to say the least, with many graduates going on to study at prestigious universities or have careers in aviation. One such graduate is EAA Government Advocacy Specialist Margaret Colwell. “She’s a classic example,” Bob said. “We are getting quality students out of our programs. When you see that, you think to yourself, ‘Wow, it’s working. It’s tangible.’”

“We have to develop enthusiasm for aviation careers. You don’t know what’s going to influence them, so you have to do the best job to present it.” Bob said. “It’s important to me to leave a legacy so we can start building aviation interests in the next generation.”

Volunteers make EAA AirVenture Oshkosh — and just about everything else EAA does — possible. This space in EAA Sport Aviation is dedicated to thanking and shining the spotlight on volunteers from the community. Sadly, it cannot capture all of the thousands of volunteers who give so much to the community every year. So, next time you see a volunteer at AirVenture or elsewhere, however they are pitching in to make EAA better, be sure to thank them for it. It’s the least we can do. Do you know a volunteer you’d like to nominate for Volunteer Spotlight? Visit EAA.org/Submissions.