Saturday, August 30, 2014

Monterey Regional Airport (KMRY) chief Greer readies for retirement

Thomas Greer
MONTEREY  -  Monterey Regional Airport's manager Thomas Greer said he hoped the news of his retirement would slip by with little fanfare after it was noted in a special meeting agenda last week.

"Our agendas usually do not cause peoples' heart to flutter," he said in his characteristic Alabama lilt.

Greer, 71, has served as the airport's general manager since 2003, taking the helm a year after he was hired as assistant general manager.

"It was sort of the pinnacle to be able to finish a career in Monterey," he said. "The cherry on top of my ice cream sundae."

Greer is one of those rare, fortunate people who've always loved their work.

"I've been doing this for 45 years next April. I'm no spring chicken," he said. "It's all I've ever done."

Raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Greer had an inkling he wanted to work in aviation from a young age.

It helped that the family lived next door to an airport.

"My dad, when he got back from the war, he would turn me loose in the hangar and he'd go flying," Greer said. "I never could afford to take flying lessons, but when I went out to school, I was going to be an engineer."

While readying for that career, he took a summer job where he "saw the managers of the engineers, and saw what I wanted to do."

Before that could happen, he spent "four or five years" flying with the U.S. Marine Corps, a job that included flying more than 300 combat missions in Phantom F4-Bs.

"People do that every day," he said. "You just do what you're trained to do."

Later, when he'd just gotten out of the Marines and "had a young wife and little baby," he saw an opening for an airport manager near Columbus, Mississippi.

"I just drove over there. It was raining on a muddy road in Mississippi. There was nothing but about 20 pieces of equipment stuck in the mud," he said. "It wasn't really what I had in mind."

The job, it turned out, was to build an airport.

And so he did.

"It's smaller than Monterey," he said. "We built everything. We had to build the sewer treatment, the water well."

The Golden Triangle Regional Airport is still in business today.

When he later managed Burbank's airport, it was still owned by the Lockheed Corp.

Part of the airport was off-limits, he said, and became known as the famous Skunk Works, where aircraft such as the U-2, SR-71 Blackbird and "Stealth Fighter" were developed.

"You knew not to ask," he said. "They'd tell us, 'If we catch fire, don't respond. Don't come over here.' "

In Monterey, Greer has most recently overseen a drawn-out environmental lawsuit that delayed a planned runway safety project and finally settled last August.

Attorneys had argued the district did not properly explain plans for a new access road, extension of a runway plateau or movement of more than 140,000 cubic yards of dirt.

The entire project has a budget of about $49 million.

Airport board member Carl Miller said the runway safety component, mandated for all commercial airports by Congress, will barely meet the deadline when it's completed at the end of 2015.

Although many people think of the project as a runway "extension," Miller said that in Monterey's case a unique technology is being used so the runway does not have to be lengthened.

It involves laying down an "engineered materials arrestor system" — EMAS — which is basically "crushable cement," Miller said. "It starts off thin and gets very thick. You can drive a car over it, but a plane will be slowed."

That allows the airport to avoid extending the runway 1,000 feet as other facilities have done, he said.

Greer plans to step down from his post in June, but announced it now to allow the board time to find a replacement.

Miller said Greer will be tough to replace.

"He's been an excellent airport manager and we're sorry to see him leave," Miller said. "His experience and stature in the aviation industry made him ideal."

Greer and Miller both note that while every city has lots of lawyers, doctors and other professions, it has only one airport director.

The field is small, Greer said, and "you have to be a gypsy."

District board members at an Aug. 20 special meeting were set to consider hiring ADK Executive Search to find a replacement. The firm specializes in airport executive searches.

According to a staff report submitted to the board, ADK's $33,000 fee would includes field interviews with potential candidates. Without field interviews, the fee would be $28,000. Travel expenses could run $8,000.

The matter comes back before the board Sept. 17.

"We're extremely lucky to have Greer. Selecting his replacement is critical for the future success of this airport," Miller said. "This, and our new master plan, are the most important decisions our board will make in recent history."

Until June, Greer plans to keep going at the job he loves, while staying "low key."

"I have a lot of things to do here. I gotta keep the toilets flushing," he said. "It's all part of the job."

But he's pleased the runway safety project and the airport's master plan will be completed next year.

The airport, he said, "is a multimillion-dollar asset to this community. It has 2,000 employees. It's an asset that elected officials should be proud of."

He says he plans to stay in the Monterey area.

"How can you not like Monterey?" he says — and besides, his kids in Southern California can always fly in for a visit.


- Source:  http://www.montereyherald.com

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