Special to ANN -- By Drew Steketee
Nearly 300 industry and association executives, government
leaders, family, friends and former staffers gathered at the
National Air and Space Museum December 12th to celebrate the life
of Edward W. Stimpson, beloved aviation industry advocate.
NASM Director Gen. John R. Dailey
(Photo and 1981 Stimpson
portrait by Drew Steketee)
Attending were current and former FAA administrators, a former
secretary of transportation -- even the former daughter-in-law of
Bob Hope, herself a much-respected Washington lobbyist. Stimpson's
official GAMA portrait looked out from beneath the Spirit of St.
Louis as speakers eulogized him before a meaningful backdrop: the
Apollo 11 space capsule.
Stimpson's Washington career had begun in the Kennedy
administration. FAA administrator Randy Babbitt recalled Stimpson's
"special relationship" with every administrator back to his
original FAA boss, former Pan Am chief Najeeb Halaby.
Former Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta praised
Stimpson's rare gift to work with lawmakers regardless of political
party. "It seems to me this city would work a lot better if
everyone adhered to the Ed Stimpson school of politics," said
Mineta.
Russ Meyer, Chairman Emeritus Of Cessna
Aircraft
(Photo by Drew Steketee)
"We went with the kid from Seattle," Russ Meyer said of
Stimpson's GAMA presidency at age 36. He said Stimpson "retained
that same boyish charm," a "basic goodness" throughout his career.
Even when first U.S. ambassador to the U.N.'s International Civil
Aviation Organization, Stimpson had called Meyer for directions to
"that great hot fudge sundae" they had found in London on a
previous trip.
Speakers said Stimpson raised America's rock-bottom standing at
ICAO despite heavy post-9/11 issues and fights over jet hush-kit
rules. By 2004, he was first vice-president of the ICAO
Assembly.
Of careers launched by Stimpson, former GAMA counsel Stan Green
praised his stewardship of industry newcomers. Some 40 such
proteges attended, including Karen (Coyle) Tripp, GAMA's 1976-79
national learn-to-fly spokeswoman. 1970s GAMA PR man Jerry Boyer,
now of Spearfish, South Dakota, recalled that campaign for 600,000
pilot starts. Its far-reaching Paul Harvey radio broadcasts
re-introduced General Aviation to the nation post-Oil Embargo.
Green struggled to conclude the day with "High Flight," a poem
now all too often called on to memorialize aviation's giants. This
time, eyes could rightly gaze skyward past "the Spirit" when John
Gillespie McGee's words assured us Ed Stimpson had surely now
"touched the face of God."