Rapid City Airport Gets Interim Director

December 23, 2003

Airport Gets Interim Director
Rapid City Journal, SD

RAPID CITY — The Rapid City Airport Board named one of its own members, board 
president Jerry Mitchell, to the post of interim executive director of Rapid 
City Regional Airport. Mitchell will serve as an unpaid volunteer until a new 
executive director can be hired.

He will step in for executive director Torrance "Tory" Richardson, who leaves 
Jan. 2 for a similar job with the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority in 
Fort Wayne, Ind.

Mitchell, 66, recently retired from Rapid Chevrolet in Rapid City. He is also 
an airline transport pilot, a flight instructor and a member of the airport 
board for the past eight years. As president of the board, he spends a lot of 
time working with the airport staff, so he is familiar with the day-to-day 
operations. He has also been flying out of Regional Airport for three decades, 
so he knows most of the people there.

And some members of the existing airport management team are likely interested 
in the top job, he added, so the board thought it would be unfair to appoint 
one of them as interim executive director.

"It's good to keep busy in retirement, and I need to give back to the 
community. I've taken for a lot of years, so it's time to give back," he said.

Mitchell will serve part time as head of the airport management team, which 
includes Ken Simmons, airport operations officer, and Dave Lepine, director of 
certification and maintenance.

Richardson was at Regional Airport for six years, including the past two as 
executive director. He was airport operations officer in January 2002, when 
then-executive director Brad Hagen resigned unexpectedly. Richardson was later 
promoted to the top job.

The airport board will begin a nationwide search for a new executive director 
to replace Richardson. Mitchell predicted it would take two to three months to 
hire a new executive director.

Mitchell said emphatically that he won't be among the applicants for the 
permanent, full-time position as executive director of Rapid City Regional 
Airport.

"No," he said with a chuckle. "I've already retired once."

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