Dead Page- Part 6: R. Michael Kammerer

R. Michael Kammerer, Jr. 1940-2997

Founder of ITN Networks and in Retirement involved in search for Amelia Earhart's Plane

R. Michael Kammerer died May 12, 2007. He was the founder of ITN Networks in 1983 from the basement of his family home. It is one of the largest suppliers of non-network prime time advertising in the US.

In 1991, he turned company operation over to a management team and moved to New Mexico where he bought a ranch and took up roping.

In 2001, he got involved with the search for Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E which is thought to rest on the Pacific Ocean floor somewhere near Howland Island where she had just refueled. Like the Lindbergh trans-Atlantic flight of 1927, her attempt to become the first to fly around the world in 1937 captured the public attention. Her disappearance has evoked much debate in the years since it happened.

Kammerer paid $1 million for a 1935 Electra 10E, the only flying sister ship of her plane. He also paid $300,000 for a 1943 PBY Catalina, similar to the those used in the initial search.

Here was a self-made man, who was able to pursue his interest in a big way.