James Ott Email & Phone Number

Crescent Springs, Ky

Ha! Self-employed hydrologist, it used to say. Well, I have poured a lot of water on stories over the years, that's for sure. The only hydrologist I've known is Pere deBonnecamps, S.J., who accompanied an expedition of French and Indians down the Ohio River in 1749. deBonnecamps, it is believed, said the first Mass in what became the Diocese of Covington. You must read all about it in "Seekers of the Everlasting Kingdom," a book I wrote on the history of the Covington diocese. And there are others of note: Airline Odyssey, McGraw-Hill, 1995, with my old buddy, the airline analyst Ray Neidl. [Odyssey was nicely reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, which caused a bump in sales of several hundred books.] And another, less recommended, is Jets, Airliners of the Golden Age. Of course, there are thousands of articles in Aviation Week & Space Technology, a few in Business Week, and hundreds in the Cincinnati Enquirer. And I can't forget, The Greatest Brush, Love, Tragedy and Redemption of Artist Frank Duveneck, published in 2016 by Branden Books of Boston, available on Amazon.com and at Joseph Beth booksellers. The Brush belongs in every home library, believe me.

Crescent Springs

I've completed a book on Frank Duveneck, something of a departure from aviation. Frank has always fascinatated me, for his artistic abilities, accomplishments and, in the end, his life. Branden Books published an e-book in late 2015 and the paperback flopped on tables everywhere in January, 2016. It can be purchased at Joseph Beth and on amazon.com.

Scribe, that's it.

Cincinnati Area

Saddle-sore and flea-bitten, I returned to the Cincinnati area searching as always to be the voice of the people. I got the chance in 2002 with the commission to write the history of the Diocese of Covington. I leapt at the opportunity. The French publisher, Edition du Signe, gave me six months. I met the deadline even as I continued to write for Aviation Week. The effort required many evenings "in the hole" of my office. Luckily, I had a good editor, Cabrini, who helped me cut the text to meet the requirements of the book and select photographs. On the whole, it was a good experience.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

I covered the world air transport system, in a word, the airlines. The theme was often the impact of airline deregulation, or liberalization, as it was known in Europe. The assignment took me around the world as governments slowly moved out of the business of regulating the economics of the airline business. It was a treat! Several times I walked in front of machine gun emplacements, sand bags and all, in several socialist countries, just to get a few questions into scared bureaucrats whose only connection with aviation was the flight of money from the poor into their pockets. The People's Republic of China denied me a visa. I also attended a couple of air shows in my day. Those after- burners, when turned on, certainly have an impact on your ears. The aerospace industry has a magnificence about it, all brains and guts. I remember listening to young Navy pilots who were testing the F-18s, nursing them and testing the envelopes of performance. Someone who was smart designed and built those aircraft and it took guts to fly them. Godspeed!

Washington D.C. Metro Area

I covered the international airline industry and directed a team of bureau writers from around the globe. We produced a section of air transport news on a weekly basis and prepared an annual review each fall.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

I became the university's image maker. Heaven knows it needed an overhaul. There had been a revolt by some theologians over their right of dissent, a movement amply covered in a recent book, The Coup at Catholic University," Ignatius Press, by Rev. Peter M. Mitchell. The bishops of the US, who as an organization founded the university in the 1880s, were deeply divided over various issues. In my period there were five cardinals on the university board. After my first year I had to give an accounting to the board after a student happened one day to mention that people often confused Catholic University with Georgetown. I did everything I could to get notice in the Press, with some success, and did a series of filmed public service shorts that got some attention. I started a university magazine featuring the bigger stories and wrote most of the articles. Two stories from the Physics Department got into Business Week, and I made friends with some of the writers. This, of course, led me to Business Week's parent, McGraw-Hill, where I was later hired as a writer and later senior editor with Aviation Week and a contributor to Busy Week. In the role as image maker I redid the University logo and I'm proud that it looks pretty much the same even today.

Master'S, Communication Arts, Film/Cinema/Video Studies

I studied communications in particular film communications.

Master'S Degree In Communication Arts, Communication Arts, 3.7

Activities and Societies: n/aI followed a film track toward the master's degree since I had already spent a decade or so as a writer..

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), English Language And Literature, General, I Can'T Recall, Probably The Result Of Not Wanting To...

Activities and Societies: The management club (Society for the Advancement of Management), another club dedicated to Anglo-Saxon.