Jake Swirbul

Leon Albert "Jake" "The Bullfrog" Swirbul[1] (March 18, 1898 – June 28, 1960), was an aviation pioneer and co-founder of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation.[1] Jake Swirbul and Leroy Grumman met in 1924 at Loening Aeronautical Engineering Co. in New York City, one of the many small aircraft firms that sprang up after World War I.When the firm's Manhattan factory was closed after its sale to Keystone Aircraft in 1929, Swirbul and Grumman decided to form their own company.Two other Loening employees, William Schwendler and Edmund Ward Poor, contributed a little and former Wall Street banker E. Clinton Towl made up the fifth employee of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, formed January 2, 1930.Jake Swirbul died of pneumonia while ill with colon cancer on June 28, 1960, shortly after Grumman began work on the Gemini program and one month after the roll-out ceremony for the A-6 Intruder.