"Final Boarding Call Beckons George Bean"

Monday, June 14, 2004

Final Boarding Call Beckons George Bean
BY DANIEL RUTH 
The Tampa (FL) Tribune


It's something of an article of faith: The reason we have all these
professional sports franchises hereabouts is that every time they perform on
national television, somehow the shots of the Tampa skyline are a marketing
coup rivaling the Hollywood sign. 

But in the end it was a grumpy, Uncle Fester-like gnome of a man who was
more responsible for Tampa Bay's image around the world than any buffed
Adonis populating the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Bucs or the Devil Rays. 

It was George Bean, who died a few days ago at 79, who single- mindedly
oversaw the development of Tampa International Airport as a universally
admired and envied center of transportation. 

And yes, it is also true that George Bean was an unapologetic and quite
gifted world class chain smoker. 

Civic Charm 

Downtown Tampa may well look like Fallujah with a hangover. 

Our schools may well be lingering only behind the Dead Sea and San Quentin. 

And our roadways may well seem to have been designed by Dr. Strangelove. 

But for all our other community shortcomings, we could always point to TIA,
a superb place - our place. 

A place that worked. 

And it worked largely because of a guy who looked like a melted candle:
George Bean. 

Cities are - or certainly should be - far more than mere bricks and mortar. 

What leavens a city's image, its style, its character are the characters who
populate it. 

On that score, the greater Tampa Bay area has no shortage of charlatans and
saints, heroes and dupes, leaders and flunkies. 

George Bean was one of those rare civic charms, a man of vision and
stubbornness to see that vision through. 

TIA was more than George Bean's occupation. 

It was his mistress, his muse, his obsession. 

By now Bean's management idiosyncrasies are legendary - his steadfast ban on
the sale of chewing gum or popcorn at TIA to protect the carpeting; his
refusal (despite board of director orders to the contrary) to install a
chapel because it might encourage groups like the Hare Krishnas to annoy
passengers. 

Labor of Love 

And there was Bean's insistence that cabbies be well groomed and not smell
like the Joad family. 

Bean spent 31 years at TIA until his retirement in 1995. It was hardly a
job, but a labor of love. 

It had to have been. In more than three decades at TIA, George Bean took
less than 60 days vacation - in total! 

God may have rested on the seventh day. George Bean had to check on the
baggage carousel. 

Because of Bean, TIA emerged and prospered. 

And because of Bean, so too did Tampa bloom and flourish. 

Around the world, this diamond in the rough set the standard for how an
airport ought to be designed, how it ought to be managed. 

In Tampa perhaps the citizenry may not have known who George Bean was, but
within the airport community he was the Muhammad Ali of luggage. 

And it is certainly because of the role George Bean played in this community
that Tampa had enjoyed much of its economic success over the past 40 years. 

It also would be unfair not to note that current TIA Executive Director
Louis Miller is a chip off the old Bean - maintaining the same standard of
performance and customer service as his mentor. 

Although the parkway leading into the airport is named after George Bean,
there really is no need to commemorate his memory any further. After all,
how can you possibly top TIA as a legacy? 

Well, perhaps there's this. 

The next time you happen to find yourself at Tampa International Airport -
put that stick of gum away. Don't think about it. 

Have a cigarette instead. 

George would like that.


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