New Mexico Aviation Conference

Last week, I spoke in Santa Fe for the 2011 New Mexico Aviation Conference. It was a great meeting with lots of info on topics including solar projects on airports, aviation accidents and how to avoid them. The staff was wonderful to work with and the attendees made up a terrific audience. I was honored to be invited. And Leo Murphree was there. I first met Leo Murphree some decades ago at the Oklahoma Airport Operators Conference in Lawton, OK. As I walked into the host hotel, there was a five-foot-tall replica of an airport beacon inside the lobby, flashing green and white, just like a real one. You couldn’t miss it if you tried. That was the exhibit of Leo Murphree, president of Electrical & Construction Specialists, specializing in airport lighting. Leo was there all the way from Greenwood, MS, from whence he had driven his pickup, pulling a trailer with that exhibit thereon. Everybody there knew him but me, it seemed. Since then, I’ve visited with Leo at more aviation meetings than either of us can count. He shows up everywhere and everybody knows him. I surely didn’t expect to see him in New Mexico, but there he was. I asked if he had driven that pickup all the way from Mississippi. Yes, he had, but typically he had delivered some airport lighting equipment along the way and was taking some back to Mississippi for refurbishment. Although he was over a 1000 miles from home, everybody knew Leo. In fact, Leo had often teased the NM folks about not having grits on the menu at their conferences. This year, by golly, they had grits in the breakfast buffet line—just for Leo. Leo may just be the best marketer I know, and he is definitely one of the nicest. Everybody knows Leo. We’d love to post your comments. Please click the comment tab at the top.