Airport mural the culmination of two years work

Airport manager Don Hurras and Stella Jurgen look at the detail in some of the paintings in the airport’s mural. (Jeff Helsdon Photo)

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

The mural filling the terminal building at Tillsonburg Airport is the culmination of two years of work by local artist Stella Jurgen.

Walking through the front door of the terminal building, you're met with a hallway with tributes to local businesses. Amongst the vignettes captured are Milt Chesterman, founder of Chesterman’s Power Products, on a lawnmower cutting grass, and the Heckford family standing in front of an antique Tillsonburg Glass truck. Another wall shows the Blue Star Air Charters hangar. Appropriately, a billboard advertising the Tillsonburg Post sits below a shelf holding the papers.

But as you enter the main room/dining room, the focus shifts entirely to planes and aviation. The three major sponsors – John Klassen of Klassen Auto Parts, Ken and Ashley Edwards of 3E Power, and Isaac Froese of Froese Vegetables – are portrayed flying their planes. The mural immortalizes unique aircraft that call Tillsonburg Airport home, such as a 1929 open-cockpit monoplane and the Harvards. Emily Crombez, the first female pilot to fly waterbombers, learned to fly in Tillsonburg and is part of the mural.

Airport manager Don Huras said the mural has attracted a lot of attention from visitors in general and visiting pilots.

“People fly in from around Ontario, and they see this, and they’re ‘Wow, who did this’,” he said.

Tillsonburg Airport hosted the Airport Managers Council of Ontario meeting in spring 2025. Huras said attendees were impressed. He said the mural has also garnered interest from those visiting the airport for breakfast.

Those depicted in the mural paid Jurgen a fee. She donated a percentage of her fees back to the airport to assist with the cost of other improvements.

The mural concept began with Huras talking about replacing the posters on the wall with a mural.

“When people started having interest and wanted to have their airplanes painted, I designed the whole space,” she said.

The project started in August of 2024 and was completed this August. Jurgen was limited to painting for only 2.5 hours per day after the cafeteria closed and while the terminal was open.

“It also took so long because of the detail,” she said. “I wanted them to be realistic.”

The building will have a grand opening sometime in the future.