He had a dream for TIA: Minimize passenger inconveniences. Make the airport comfortable. And no chewing gum, please.
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published June 10, 2004
[Times file photo]
George Bean retired in 1996 as head of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority, which oversees TIA and three smaller airports.
TAMPA - Just about anyone who started working in the airport industry in the late 1960s and early '70s got the same piece of advice: You have to meet George Bean. And you have to go see that new airport they've built down in Tampa.
As director of Tampa International Airport for 31 years beginning in 1965, Mr. Bean built a reputation as a feisty but respected leader who made passenger comfort a priority.
He proved to doubters that Tampa was ready for a radically designed airport, and he convinced them that the price tag of more than $80-million was worth it. He didn't want airport visitors to chew gum, yet he took steps to make sure their experience there was comfortable, even homey.
Mr. Bean died Tuesday (June 8, 2004) of natural causes. He was 79.
Friends, loved ones and fellow aviation leaders said Mr. Bean will live on through TIA, still considered one of the nation's best airports 33 years after it opened.
"Our community would not be where it is today were it not for this airport, and we would not have that airport without George," said Louis Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority.
Miller took the job after Mr. Bean retired in 1996 as head of the authority, which oversees TIA and three smaller airports in Hillsborough County.
"He was my mentor," Miller said.
Mr. Bean was a mentor to many in the airport industry. Charles Barclay, president of the American Association of Airport Executives, knew him for 30 years.
Barclay was new to the airport business in 1970 when his boss sent him to Tampa to spend a week with Mr. Bean. TIA was under construction, and Mr. Bean was fending off plenty of critics.
Airline officials thought Tampa was too small for such an expensive project, and they didn't know what to make of the innovative design - the first U.S. airport built specifically with passenger comfort in mind.
They looked at the carpet, the shuttle cars, the parking areas located so close to the terminal and saw unnecessary expenses. Mr. Bean saw those things as necessary for the future of air travel.
"A lot of people thought it was too much money, that we shouldn't spend so much on landscaping," recalled former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco. "Others thought it wouldn't work. But he became so committed to it that the airport really became his life."
Ultimately, Mr. Bean won the debate.
"He had very strong views, but one of the reasons he was so successful was that he always disagreed without being disagreeable," Barclay recalled. "He was always a gentleman."
A gentleman, yes, said his wife of 21 years, Norma Lopez Bean. But a feisty one.
"He might tell you to go to hell," she said. "He might not agree with you. He might hang up on you. But he always respected you. And the only thing that made him prouder than that airport were his seven grandkids."
Mr. Bean, hard-headed and averse to clutter, paid attention to the smallest details at TIA. He wouldn't let airport shops sell gum. He didn't want it getting stuck on people's shoes or in the carpet he installed to reduce noise and create a sense of coziness.
He didn't allow popcorn vendors. Mr. Bean, an incessant smoker, insisted popcorn would stink up the airport. Besides, it was messy.
To ensure that airport visitors never had to walk too far, he made sure that drivers could park over the main terminal. Trams ferried passengers to outlying buildings to catch their planes. Elevators brought them to within a few hundred feet of ticket counters.
Mr. Bean's tenure was not without turbulence. He faced opposition and criticism for his plans for the expensive Airside A terminal, which opened in 1995 with a price tag of $110-million. And in the early '90s there was controversy over first-class trips that Hillsborough County Airport Authority members took. State officials said authority members were breaking the law.
But Mr. Bean, born in Worcester, Mass., where his father was a letter carrier, survived. And thrived.
After serving in World War II, he joined Northeast Airlines in 1944 while attending college in Massachusetts. He carried luggage, put together weather reports and collected tickets.
He moved up in the company and went into airport management, seeking out the job in Tampa when he learned of the new airport being designed by architect Leigh Fisher. When Mr. Bean left the authority in 1996, the road leading into TIA was named for him.
Mr. Bean was the only person ever to chair both major airport associations - the Airports Council International and the American Association of Airport Executives, Barclay said. The ACI is a worldwide organization that Mr. Bean helped establish.
David Plavin, president of ACI/North America and a longtime friend, said he will always have a vivid memory of Mr. Bean at work.
"My everlasting image of George is to see him at the other end of the table, sitting with a small cadre of people who smoked incessantly. He would have that cigarette in his hand and just expound in a way that made everyone listen."
Mr. Bean is survived by his wife; stepchildren Valerie G. Cappello and husband Andrew, Karen G. Patterson and husband Lawrence, E. Louis Garcia Jr. and wife Gina; seven grandchildren; sister Eleanor Hall of Massachusetts; and several nieces and nephews. Mr. Bean was preceded in death by his brother, Ray Bean.
A wake and visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at Gonzalez Funeral Home, 7209 N Dale Mabry Highway. The funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Lawrence Catholic Church, 5225 N Himes Ave. Immediately after the Mass, Mr. Bean will be buried in Centro Asturiano Cemetery at E 53rd Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Tampa.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Salesian Youth Center/Boys and Girls Club, 302 W Gladys St., Tampa 33602, or to the Tampa Bay chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, 9365 US 19 N, Suite B, Pinellas Park 33782.
- Times staff writers Bill Adair and Steve Huettel contributed to this report. Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com
