Airport renamed for Gonzales general, lawyer
Family and friends of the late Roger M. Dreyer were joined by city staff and elected officials Tuesday for the dedication and renaming of the Gonzales Municipal Airport as the Roger M. Dreyer Memorial Airport. Following the ceremony, a reception was held at the airport pilot’s lounge.
The name of the Gonzales Municipal Airport was officially changed Tuesday to the Roger M. Dreyer Memorial Airport, honoring the life of the Gonzales attorney, his service in the military and his love for his community.
“He loved this community, he loved this state and he loved this nation,” his son James said of his father during the ceremony to rename the airport.
And, appropriately enough for an Air Force pilot who now has an airport named after him, “he loved to fly,” added his brother, Jene.
Dreyer, a brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserves who served in World War II, began practicing law with R.L. Miller in Gonzales in 1953. He served as Gonzales County Attorney for 12 years, and was in practice as a sole practitioner for 17 years before joining the general law practice of Perkins, Dreyer, Rather and Schroeder.
A 1941 graduate of Prairie High School, Dreyer joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942, and was commissioned and received his pilot’s wings in 1944. He served in the Philippines and New Guinea during WWII before his discharge from active duty in 1946 when he joined the USAF Reserves. He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence form the University of Texas in 1953. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1973, and retired in 1979.
He was a member of the First United Methodist Church, where he served as chairman of the Administrative Board, and was a past master of Gonzales Masonic Lodge #30 AF&AM. He was a past president of the Gonzales Rotary Club, past president of the Gonzales Chamber of Commerce, past commander of the American Legion Post #40, and a member of the Gonzales VFW. He was a recipient of the David B. Walshak Lifetime Achievement Award, an annual honor given by the Gonzales Chamber of Commerce. He served as chairman of the District 12-C Grievance Committee for the State Bar of Texas, was past president of the Gonzales County Bar Association, was a life member of the reserve officers association and the University of Texas Ex-Students Association.
He died in June 2005 at age 81.
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