Former Senator Carmine Mowbray

RAF Featured Supporter Carmine Mowbray

If there was ever an individual who epitomizes volunteerism for the RAF, it’s Carmine Mowbray, from Polson, Montana and St. George, Utah. She volunteered to publish RAF Newsletters, worked on the pilot shelter at Ryan Field, swung a Pulaski cutting sagebrush at a Missouri Breaks airstrip, and staffed the RAF booth at trade shows.

A native of western Washington, she and her husband moved to Montana in 1973. They started a printing business that grew into a regional printing plant serving western Montana, and published a small chain of award-winning weekly newspapers. For nearly two decades they flew a Turbo Lance to manage their six locations around Montana. At the same time they were raising four busy kids, all of whom have grown and are starting families of their own. Mowbrays sold the publishing enterprise to a larger chain in 2000. At that time Mowbrays employed 50 people.

No longer tied to a business, Carmine pursued other interests. She served on First Interstate Bank’s advisory board; spent 14 years on the local Polson hospital board, and taught motorcycle safety for ten seasons. She chaired Polson’s live arts council for a dozen years, and produced an award winning radio show for Montana Public Radio. To exercise her passion for journalism she published two works of historical fiction, one of which won a national award. Of her time serving in the Montana Senate, she says, “It was a real honor and very stimulating to be surrounded with 49 type-A workaholics who love to debate.”

Carmine now owns a 1960 Cessna 182 equipped with a three blade prop and a Sportsman STOL. “I can reach some outstanding places with this plane. By supporting the RAF we can all work together to maintain the destinations we all are privileged to use.”

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RAF ADDS MICHIGAN LIAISON SCOTT ANTTILA

By Taylin Trafton • December 11, 2025
A Christmas gift of flight lessons from his parents started Scott Anttila’s aviation journey in 1985. “I learned at Johnson Field, a small grass strip tucked into the woods in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and that early exposure to simple backcountry flying stuck with me,” Scott says. Growing up in the U.P., he spent a lot of time outdoors and found that flying was another way to get to the places he liked to explore—especially the ones most people never saw. As he earned more ratings and eventually moved to the Detroit area for work, Scott realized he needed a way to stay connected to northern Michigan. He bought an airplane and used it to get back to the smaller airstrips and lake country he enjoyed. Along the way, he also flew gliders out of Frankfort, soaring along the Sleeping Bear Dunes and towing sailplanes over the Great Lakes. “Those flights gave me a different appreciation for the landscape and made me even more interested in the small, out-of-the-way airports scattered around the state,” he says. Visiting those kinds of places, Scott first came across the Recreational Aviation Foundation. He started using RAF-supported airstrips both inside and outside Michigan. “I noticed how well-kept they were and how much access they opened up,” he says, adding, ”Over the years, I’ve watched a number of grass strips close, which made the RAF’s mission feel especially important to me. Maintaining these airstrips keeps aviation connected to the outdoors and makes it possible for more people to reach the quiet, remote areas that inspired me to fly in the first place.” Scott joins the other two RAF Michigan Liaisons, General Grant and Tanmoy Ganguly. He can be reached at santtila@theraf.org . Submitted December 11, 2025.