Growth and learning are two words that crop up again and again when talking to Raymond Plank or reading his new memoir, A Small Difference. These traits led to a remarkable career spanning more than 50 years.

Now living outside Sheridan, Wyo., Plank remains a voracious reader and apt student of current affairs. Born in 1922 and raised in Minneapolis, he was a bomber pilot in the Pacific in World War II before returning to the U.S. Three of the B-24s he piloted barely made it back and never flew ...