Vivian Nemhauser & Amelia Earhart
By Bernie Marvin
The late Vivian Nemhauser of West Newbury was a trailblazing pilot who inspired adults and kids with her wonderful stories about her flying military airplanes during World War 2.
She was also interested in the famous pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared on her flight somewhere over the South Pacific in 1937. Vivian had followed Amelia's life and told me all about her fellow pilot's final, mysterious flight. Amelia has been the object of a worldwide search ever since.
A major new search expedition, backed by Purdue University and the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI), is scheduled to depart Wednesday, October 7, 2026, to investigate a particularly interesting satellite image.
Vivian and her family moved here from New York. She was active with the Orange East Senior program in Bradford. I interviewed her there at Brookside Nursing Home on many occasions. She was very involved with that facility, as well as others in the Bradford area.
Vivian's take on the disappearance was that she felt Amelia's Lockheed Electra airplane and her navigator, Fred Noonan, probably went down at sea, and that was the end. She doubted they survived the accident, but she said that if they did and found their way to an island as castaways, she also doubted the Japanese had taken them prisoner.
Vivian told me about her wide collection of Amelia Earhart flight materials, including stories and photos, and even some materials about Amelia's sister, Muriel. I was always intrigued that both my mother and Vivian Nemhauser knew Muriel Earhart Morrisey and may have met Amelia. Fascinating.
In 1997, Texas pilot Linda Finch recreated Amelia Earhart's final, fatal flight path from 60 years earlier. In a restored Lockheed Electra, Linda landed in 18 countries and finished her historic flight nearly three months later.
The world loved the commemorative activity and tracked her flight. Vivian Nemhauser loved it as well. We talked about it continually, and one day, she invited me to accompany her to the Newbury Village School, where she gave the children there (and me, too!) a magnificent presentation on Amelia Earhart. She spoke about how Linda Finch was reliving this great piece of women-in-flight history.
She served in the Women's Air Service Pilots of the Air Force, then in the Civil Air Patrol. She was the secretary to the president of Jamestown College in North Dakota. In 1976, she moved to West Newbury, where she was an administrator of the Orange East Senior Center.
She was instrumental in establishing Brookside Nursing Home in Bradford. She volunteered for hospice in Bradford and was a member of the West Newbury Congregational Church, American Legion, Post 78 in Newbury, and the Women's Auxiliary Aviators Association. Her husband, Dr. Gustave Nemhauser, died in 1975. She and her husband had three children: Glenn W., Phyllis A., and Jane Nemhauser.
Until her passing, Vivian was a panelist, on-site flying pilot, and personality at the Haverhill Airport Awareness program, held annually at the Dean Memorial Airport in North Haverhill.
The news of this year's update and search activity is exciting. The 16-person team of underwater archaeologists, terrestrial researchers, and filmmakers will set sail from Tarawa, Kiribati, and seek the remote, uninhabited Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific.
This mission will focus on the "Taraia Object, "an underwater shape first spotted via satellite in 2020 within a shallow island lagoon. Experts note that the shape closely matches the dimensions of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E aircraft and has remained in the same spot in photos dating back to 1938.
While the expedition was originally planned for 2025, it faced delays due to ocean cyclone seasons and the wait for official research permits. With the island government's approval now fully secured, the team is moving forward with the trip. They plan to set up a live Starlink satellite connection on the island to deliver regular updates.
Expedition leaders expect to make a formal announcement from the site on whether the object is truly Earhart's plane. According to current news reports, they plan to make that announcement around Friday, October 16, 2026.
Vivian Nemhauser died on May 18, 2003. I hope the information discovered in this latest attempt will yield evidence or clues that the outline of the Earhart airplane fits and may help answer what happened to Amelia and navigator Noonan back in 1937.
World War 2 Women Air Service Pilot, the late Vivian Nemhauser of West Newbury, as seen in 1944. She followed the career and history of another woman pilot, Amelia Earhart. It is believed Earhart was lost at sea in 1937, with newly discovered evidence pointing to the hope that Earhart’s plane has finally been found deep in the South Pacific. Courtesy photo.