BRODHEAD — The Kelch Aviation Museum, currently being constructed in Brodhead, just got $100,000 closer to its fundraising goal, thanks to a donation from Orfordville’s late Rudy Kopp, who had an affinity for aviation and adventure. 

Patrick Weeden, executive director of the museum, was officially notified of the bequest on Sept. 30 by Kopp’s daughter, Nancy Kopp of Madison. 

Weeden said he was aware that Rudy Kopp wanted to make a donation of some kind but had “no idea whatsoever it would be anything this big.” 

“Rudy had far ranging interests, but aviation was at the top of his list,” Nancy said in a release about the donation. She noted that from his first glimpse of a plane in the early 1930s, flight fascinated Rudy, and he made up his mind that someday he would fly. He earned his private pilot’s license in his early 40s and his glider rating at age 50. 

She said that Rudy’s adventures led him around the world and he easily made friends wherever he went. He was a “veritable encyclopedia of information of all kinds,” she said.

On Rudy’s adventures, aviation museums were always a required stop, the release said, and Rudy was a frequent visitor to the Brodhead Airport, sometimes bringing his 1928 Packard sedan. He had followed the museum’s progress and was delighted the Brodhead would someday have the facility. 

“This was a project that was very dear to his heart,” Nancy said. 

A capital campaign was launched in 2016 and the new museum began construction this July, breaking ground on its first phase on July 19, just over a week before Rudy passed away on July 28 at age 92. That phase is set to finish in November.

The museum’s end goal is $1.3 million, of which about $750,000 had been raised before Kopp’s donation, Weeden said. But that’s only part of the financial story. 

A challenge grant of $370,000 was given to the museum by the William S. Knight Foundation. It’s spread over three years, so approximately $123,000 will be awarded to the museum each of those years as long as it raises funds to match the amount during that period. According to the release, Rudy counted Bill and Stan Knight among his many friends, and was pleased to join with the Knight Foundation in contributing to the project. 

Weeden said it was down to wire last year — the museum raised the $123,000 by late December 2018, just in time. This year Kopp’s gift, added to around $75,000 already raised, put it over that threshold before October. 

“It’s really really nice to have that wrapped up three months early,” Weeden said. 

With the challenge grant taken into account, funds raised now total nearly $1 million. 

In honor of his donation, the museum will name its upcoming library and archive after Rudy, and a display about his life and passion for aviation and exploration will also be presented with the museum. It was great news to Nancy when she heard. She said her father loved looking things up, and had an extensive reference library. At the age of 70 he got a computer and at 80, a smartphone.

“(He) never lost the desire to learn new things,” Nancy said. 

According to Weeden, the museum has well over 10,000 volumes of books and magazines on aviation. Some date as far back as the late-1800s, before airplanes were even invented.

If all goes according to plan, Weeden said the museum will finish phase two of its construction this spring. 

Along with the library, the new facility will feature 19 restored vintage aircraft from the “Golden Age of Aviation” from 1920 to 1940 and a large rentable banquet space in addition to an aviation art gallery, a collection of vintage automobiles and an archive. According to the release, it will be open to the public year-round and will be a community resource for Brodhead and the surrounding area.