Palm Springs Expected to Name Airport Director Today

City Expected to Name Airport Director Today 
Richard Walsh coming to valley from Bay Area
 
The Desert Sun, CA
January 7th, 2004 


PALM SPRINGS -- The city today intends to name a San Francisco airport 
administrator as the head of the Palm Springs International Airport, ending a 
six-month nationwide search.

City Manager David Ready told The Desert Sun on Tuesday that Richard Walsh, the 
associate deputy airport director of the San Francisco International Airport, 
will begin work Feb. 19 as Palm Springs’ director of aviation. The 
appointment is expected to be announced today at the Airport Commission’s 
monthly meeting. Walsh, 39, will replace Allen Smoot, who announced his 
retirement in July and left the post in December.

Walsh said he will follow Smoot’s legacy, expanding services at the airport, 
which offers 55 daily flights.

"Palm Springs is in transition from being a resort to becoming more of an 
origination and destination airport," Walsh said in a phone interview. "It’s 
incumbent on me to make sense of this in terms of the numbers and turn it into 
airline language so the airlines can see what the city fathers already see."

Local tourism insiders said that mission was just what they were hoping for in 
the new director.

"A lot of our clients are from the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast," said Tim 
Sullivan, general manager of the Desert Springs Marriott Resort and Spa in Palm 
Desert. "There’s not a lot of direct flights to Palm Springs from those areas 
of the country. What we’re looking for are more direct flights from more 
major cities."

Gary Sherwin, vice president of marketing development for the Palm Springs 
Desert Resorts Convention and Visitors Authority, also supports expanding 
services, which is vital to securing more conventions to the valley. 

But he doesn’t want to see the airport’s welcoming atmosphere changed in 
the process.

"The ambience is terrific," Sherwin said. "You really feel like you’ve come 
to another place when you get here. It doesn’t feel like a security compound 
with guards everywhere."

Walsh said expanding the airport is always a process of balancing the 
community’s needs. To facilitate that he intends to have an open door to 
residents.

"I think people, for the most part, want to be heard," Walsh said. "So it’s 
paramount for any director to be accessible, not only to the media but to 
anyone in the community." 

Ready said Walsh’s ability to build relationships with the Federal Aviation 
Administration, promote tourism and work with cities down valley helped him 
stand out from the other four finalists competing for the job.

Barry Griffith, assistant director of aviation, made that short list. He 
declined to comment on being passed over for the promotion. Ready said Griffith 
and Walsh will be a good team to expand the airport’s service.

Walsh brings more than 20 years of experience to the position. He started as an 
air traffic control specialist with the U.S. Army in 1983 before earning a 
bachelor’s degree in professional aeronautics and a master’s degree in 
aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona 
Beach, Fla. He also holds the title of accredited airport executive from the 
American Association of Airport Executives. 

Walsh came to San Francisco in June 2000, implementing a $25 million 
environmental mitigation program that included reestablishing wetlands. "He’s 
been a very valuable resource here at the airport," said Mike McCarron, 
director of community affairs for San Francisco airport. "It’s going to be 
hard to fill his shoes."
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