Hale Bennett
Just eight days before his 94th birthday, which fell on St. Patrick’s Day, Hale Bennett of Silver Springs and lease holder for the Silver Springs Regional Airport, died March 9 at his home adjacent to the airport surrounded by family.
The public is invited to a memorial gathering to honor Bennett on April 26. The gathering will feature full military honors for Bennett, a World War II pilot who served in the Army Air Corps and who landed at the then-Lahontan Air Strip in 1945.
Despite the loss of her 26-year partner, Kay Bennett, who co-managed the airport with Hale, said she plans to continue with operation of the airport. The Bennetts and other partners lease the airport through an agreement between Lyon County and their Silver Springs Airport LLC.
Kay said that in the past year or so, as Hale battled multiple myeloma, which he’s had since 2005, she has taken over more duties and thus his death shouldn’t affect the airport operations.
“I’ll continue as the owner and CEO,” she said.
The Bennetts have leased the airport from Lyon County since an agreement approved in 1996, after leasing the air strip from the BLM for several years before that.
Lyon County manager Jeff Page said he doesn’t see Bennett’s death affecting their agreement and operations of the airport in any way. He said he doesn’t foresee any changes.
He said the Bennetts have done a fine job of taking the weed-infested landing strip and developing a “functional general aviation airport” with the aid of FAA grant funding.
“I’m saddened by his death,” Page said.
Hale first saw the airport when he landed a B-29 Super Fortress there in 1945, Kay said, as part of a training trip, and didn’t forget it. Then, in 1989, a year or two after the two married, Hale drove Kay by the airport on their way to Fallon, and she saw so many possibilities and potential with the airport site.
At that time, a group of local residents who’d formed the nonprofit Lahontan Airport Development Association operated the unpaved landing strip in a lease from the BLM. Kay said they didn’t have the experience with aviation Hale did and were willing to sell the lease and assets to the Bennetts in 1989.
The landing strip went to Lyon County after the war but had fallen into disarray. So, by the 1970s, Kay said, Lyon County felt it was a liability and asked the BLM to take over the property, with the BLM requesting the paved runway be torn out. It was eventually paved again in 2001 thanks to one of several FAA grants.
Flying was a big part of their life as Kay said Hale took her flying on their second date over Lake Tahoe and she fell in love with flying, later obtaining her pilot’s license.
“The two of us, we had the same long-term vision (for the airport),” she said. “We saw the great potential, great strategic location. We both had a love and passion for flying.”
In order to obtain FAA capital improvement funding, the airport needed to be owned by a governmental agency, so they approached Lyon County about acquiring the land from the BLM. The Bennetts then leased the airport property from the county in a 50-year lease that has been amended several times.
The Bennetts also were involved with the Silver Springs General Improvement District. Hale was on the sewer system exploratory committee before the GID was formed and later they entered into an agreement with the GID to take the treated effluent from the sewer treatment plant.
Kay Bennett said Hale enjoyed farming and the effluent was used to irrigate wheat and alfalfa they grew on their property near the airport.
“He was certainly my rock to stand on,” she said, adding it was his guidance, perseverance and support that led to where the airport stands today. “He was fully engaged and knowledgeable of what was going on” at the airport until the past few months, she said of his continued involvement. “He leaves a marvelous legacy.”
MEMORIAL
A public memorial for Hale Bennett is at 10 a.m. April 26 at the Silver Springs Airport. The gathering will feature full military honors for Bennett, a World War II pilot who served in the Army Air Corps.
In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to go to the Youth Eagles Chapter 1073 (donations can be made at any Wells Fargo Bank).
Source: http://www.rgj.com
