spauldingobit

     We learned that our friend Pete Spaulding died 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 suffering a terrible incident after some dental work that caused permanent impairment in the early 1990s.
     Peter J. Spaulding was/is the first director of air cargo marketing The Port of New York & New Jersey ever had.
     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, who began as a cargo handler at Pan Am at JFK in 1965 and later was a cargo rep for Braniff and onto Trans Mediterranean Airways (TMA) as traffic manager USA, before moving as cargo sales manager to Summit, a company based in Philadelphia that delivered small packages out of Sky Vans.
     He joined Port Authority of New York & New Jersey in 1981 as cargo development manager after aviation director for the USA bi-state agency Robert Aaronson thought up the idea of adding cargo to the NY& NJ airports marketing effort.
     Once Pete told me of his amusement during the interview process when a PONY screener obviously feeling his way, 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, a time of his life that ended when he had enough of The Port Authority in 1988, Pete jumped entrepreneurial, setting up a pioneering and ahead of its time perishables center (US Perishables) at JFK.
      Then came his bad luck health followed by an occasional re-emergence.
      But now the book on Pete is closed and we are damn sorry to hear that.
      He was a fighter in every way, who lived on through almost two decades after most everybody 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 PONY Jim Larsen.
      Both love air cargo and brought to the form experience, wisdom, a willingness to share and great fun, humor and passion to every endeavor.
      Pete used to live in downtown Brooklyn on Stuyvesant near this great landmark steak house called 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 including fabulous corned beef hash cooked under the steak broiler and topped with an egg, 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 even drinks around mid-day either.
      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)