Ray Lemmon, 86, Bethlehem resident and author of “Not Flying Alone: An Autobiography,” says the people he has met through flying and through religious study have all had a profound influence on his life.

Lemmon says the flying community, which he encountered as a private pilot and as United Airlines pilot for 33 years, has led to life-long friendships. Currently, he takes classes at Moravian Theological Seminary.

“I’ve made some very good friends over there,” he says. “It’s been a very good experience for me.”

He also participates in the men’s Bible study at Central Moravian Church, which he says is “very rewarding.”

But it was flying that first brought Lemmon and his late wife, Margaret, to the Lehigh Valley in 1969. A flying friend, OV Pezzi, was already here and recommended ABE airport (now Lehigh Valley International) as a place to find a hangar for Lemmon’s personal plane.

“I rejected it out of hand,” Lemmon says. At the time he was flying out of Newark and Route 78 was not complete, meaning a commute on Route 22.

Then he saw the hangar.

The 1942 Staggerwing Beech had found a new home, and so did the Lemmons, in an apartment on Stonehenge Court near the airport. Margaret had named the biplane RAMAR, combining their names. Later they lived in Delta Manor, a subdivision in Bethlehem Township and Spring Lake Farms, on Bierys Bridge Road near Monocacy Creek, and finally in Moravian Village, where Lemmon still resides.

After a transfer to Cleveland in 1977, Lemmon says, “I never dreamed we would come back.” But when the opportunity came to fly the DC-10 out of Newark in 1983, he asked Margaret if she would like to move back to Bethlehem. She was in tears, Lemmon says.

“She loved it here. The thought that she could return was almost too much for her,” he says. “It was a precious moment.”

Margaret was a member of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Bethlehem during their earlier time in the Lehigh Valley.

“She hated to leave Bethlehem because of church,” Lemmon said.

One of their favorite things about Bethlehem was the Christmas decorations, he recalls.

“Seeing the star on mountain was important to us,” he said.

Many things made the area significant. Martin Tower “is an expression of Bethlehem Steel. We were impressed with Martin Tower.”

The loss of Bethlehem Steel was great, especially seeing the stacks abandoned for many years.

“To see what happened to Steel after that. The presence here was enormous,” he says. “To see that gone is difficult.”

Since then, he has seen the Southside evolve. He notes the effect the casino has had to bring Southside into the community.

He likes to drive up Mountain Road.

“It’s beautiful on the mountain,” he said. “The view from up there is tremendous.”

Lemmon still flies a private plane about once a week out of Lehighton or Allentown Queen City Airport. He no longer flies solo and keeps the flights short, usually about an hour or so. He still enjoys being a part of the flying community.

“Everybody knows everybody.”

He attributes his continued good health and ability to fly to a spiritual encounter with Margaret after she had passed away in 2011.

“Somehow her spirit came back here. How could she do that?” he asks.

After Margaret died, there were times he felt her presence, telling him things he needed to do or showing him things he knew she wanted him to see.

“The influence is there … so powerful you can’t ignore it,” Lemmon says.

When it was time to retire, they often spent winters or summers elsewhere, but they would always return to Bethlehem.

“It was always a central place,” he explains.

He recalls a moment flying a United plane over Tannersville, Pa., on Nov. 5, 1969. Due to confusion with Air Traffic Control, another plane flew directly into their path. It was only through the quick intervention of the second officer and Lemmon’s flying that the planes missed, coming within 50 feet of each other, the closest miss on record, Lemmon says, as far as he is aware.

Disaster was averted and passengers escaped with only a few minor injuries.

“You realize how quickly life can come to an end; how quickly it can all be gone. It was close,” he says.

As captain, Lemmon had to attend a National Transportation Safety Board hearing. After the hearing, United’s representative asked Lemmon if he wanted to stay in a hotel room nearby rather than make the trip back to Bethlehem.

No, he said.

“I had to get home to see Margaret. I had already been gone for three days.”

So it was back on the road again. Home to Bethlehem. Home to Margaret.