Dateline—March
10, 2006
Remembering Peter Spaulding
 We
learned that our friend Pete Spaulding died on February
1, 2006.
The
old line goes:
“Dead?
I didn’t even know he was sick.”
But
we knew for a long time that Pete was not well, especially
after he cut his air cargo career short in the early
1990s after suffering a terrible incident with some
dental work that caused permanent impairment.
Peter
J. Spaulding was the first Director of Air Cargo Marketing
for The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.
Although
he was the first, and in many ways defined the post
for airport cargo types elsewhere in the world, he was
also an air cargo guy, a dreamer and doer of the form.
He began as a Pan Am cargo handler at JFK in 1965 and
later was a cargo rep for Braniff. Later he moved on
to Trans Mediterranean Airways (TMA) as traffic manager
USA, before taking a post as cargo sales manager at
Summit, a company based in Philadelphia that delivered
small packages out of Sky Vans.
He
joined The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey
in 1981 as cargo development manager after Aviation
Director Robert Aaronson brainstormed the idea of adding
cargo to the NY & NJ airports marketing effort.
Pete
once told me of his amusement during the interview process,
when a PANYNJ screener looked at Pete and said:
“Why
do we need you?”
Pete
was medium-sized, but otherwise always larger than life.
He
spoke off the shoulder in terms that were always clear
and easy to understand and directed his efforts the
same way.
There
was just no pretense about the guy.
He
never searched for big words.
He
said what he meant and that was his bond.
After
his Port Authority career, which ended in 1988, when
he decided he had had enough of The Port Authority,
Pete jumped entrepreneurial, setting up a pioneering
and revolutionary perishables center (US Perishables)
at JFK.
He
then had bad luck with his health, although he would
occasionally reemerge.
But
now the book on Pete is closed, and we are damn sorry
to hear that.
He
was a fighter in every way. He lived on through nearly
two decades after almost everyone else—except
Pete and those close to him—thought he was finished.
He
was a New York street air cargo guy, not unlike his
successor at PANYNJ, Jim Larsen.
Both
loved air cargo and brought experience, wisdom, humor,
passion, and willingness to share to every endeavor.
Pete
used to live in downtown Brooklyn on Stuyvesant, right
near the landmark steak house, Peter Luger’s.
Luger’s
for dinner is an impossible table and has been for 30
years.
But
some people know that the place is easy and much less
expensive at lunch, with daily specials that include
a fabulous egg-topped corned beef hash cooked under
the steak broiler and served up every Friday.
I
used to meet Pete at Luger’s on Fridays and drink
martinis and smoke cigarettes and eat corned beef at
the bar while talking for hours about air cargo.
Pete
and I have not done that for 15 years.
Now
nobody smokes inside restaurants anymore or drinks around
mid-day.
Maybe
I will go back there and lift a glass to Pete and wish
his lovely wife Ann (ryangrpltd@aol.com) Godspeed.
It’s
only right.
Geoffrey
|
Dear
Geoffrey,