Columbus, OH – After a long and prestigious career in aviation, the airport which astronaut John Glenn, 94, has admired since boyhood was named in his honor during a ceremony last Tuesday.
Glenn, raised in New Concord, Ohio – just an hour away from the now John Glenn Columbus International Airport – was the first American to orbit the earth and is the last surviving member of NASA’s historic Mercury Seven crew.
Glenn hopes that the celebration surrounding the renaming of the Port Columbus Airport will inspire younger generations to pursue science and engineering as he did.
“It is a great honor to me to have this field with my name on it,” Glenn said. “It’s not just that, though. One of the things that I think is most important about something like this…is the fact that it may draw attention for some of our young people and develop their interest in knowing that they, in their time, can do as many new things as have been done in aviation and in flying in the past.”
Susan Tomasky, chairwoman of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority board, also has high hopes.
“It’s completely fitting that our airport’s name and its future will be associated with someone whose life achievements span one of the greatest moments in human flight and an enduring lifetime of contributions to improving the lives and the future of the people in our community, our state and our nation,” said Tomasky. “[He’s] an example of what unwavering Midwestern determination and dogged hard work can lead to.”
During World War II and the Korean War, Glenn flew a total 122 missions and set the transcontinental speed record. Much later, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974, serving until 1999. Glenn even returned to space in 1998, at the age of 77, and piloted a private aircraft until age 90.
During his speech Tuesday, Glenn recalled begging his parents to take him to the Columbus airport to look at planes whenever they passed through. “It was something I was fascinated with,” he said.
He remembered traveling from Columbus to Los Angeles on a DC-3 when there was only one airline, TWA. Trips back then required interim stops to cities like Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Dallas, El Paso and Albuquerque. “It took 24 hours to get there, something we find almost ridiculous these days when we have direct service,” Glenn said.
He also recalled many “tearful departures or homecomings” during wartime at the airport’s old terminal.
Glenn was joined at the event by his wife of 73 years, Annie, their children and a host of dignitaries. He apologized Tuesday for not recognizing some old friends in the crowd. Although he cracked jokes about his vision, Glenn’s lost almost a third of his eyesight as a result of a small stroke and macular degeneration.
At the end of the ceremony, the airport’s new name was unveiled, stretched across a video board that featured a scrolling multimedia presentation of Glenn’s life and legacy.
