Robert J. Serling

Robert Jerome Serling (born Jerome Robert Serling; March 28, 1918 – May 6, 2010) was an American novelist and aviation writer.

Born in Cortland, New York and raised in Binghamton, Serling graduated from Antioch College in 1942. He "deplored the name Jerome" and swapped his first and middle names as a young man. He was the older brother of screenwriter and The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling.

Serling became full-time aviation editor for United Press International in 1960. He wrote at least eight novels and sixteen books of nonfiction. His novel The President's Plane Is Missing was made into a 1973 made-for-TV film starring Buddy Ebsen. He received the 1988 Lauren D. Lyman Award "for distinguished achievement in the field of aviation and aerospace journalism."

He had two children with his second wife, Priscilla Arone, a former Western Airlines stewardess. His daughter Jennifer is a veterinary technician.

Serling died of pancreatic cancer on May 6, 2010, at age 92 in Tucson, Arizona.

He was a United Press International, Washington, DC, reporter and manager of Radio News Division, 1945–60, aviation editor, 1960–66; air safety lecturer and consultant, beginning 1966. His brother Rod Serling hired him as a technical consultant (for which he received on-screen credit) for the airplane sequences in the episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33" of his hit TV-show The Twilight Zone. Robert Serling also received advisor or researcher credits on two other Rod Serling scripts: one each for scripts penned for Studio One and Playhouse 90. He was a reporter for the Washington Redskins and travelled with the team and roomed with quarterback Eddie LeBaron. He was a very devout conservative Republican, in contrast to his brother’s liberal Democratic stance.

He was a member of the Society of Air Safety Investigators and the Aviation/Space Writers Association

He collected commercial airline models (more than four hundred during his life) and material on aviation research. In 2008, was featured speaker at the 32nd annual Airliners International collectibles show and convention in Dallas, Texas.

He authored the short story "Ghost Writer" published in Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary. His Something's Alive on the Titanic and The President's Plane Is Missing and ‘’Air Force One is Haunted’’ are fantasy novels set in real life high-profile backdrops.

He received numerous honors of his work throughout his career:^{[citation needed]}

• Trans-World Airlines, seven awards, 1958–65, for aviation news reporting
• Strebig-Dobben Memorial Award, 1960
• special citations from Sherman Fairchild Foundation, 1963
• Flight Safety Foundation, 1970
• Airline Pilots Association, 1970
• Aviation/Space Writers Association
• James Trebig Memorial Award, 1964
• special citation, 1967
• award in fiction, 1966, for The Left Seat
• award in non-fiction, 1969, for Loud and Clear