In the February issue, we kicked off our 30th anniversary celebration by highlighting the evolution of the magazine and its goal to serve the industry. In that column we also encouraged all of our readers and industry friends to celebrate with us, so we can highlight the people and companies that make this segment of the industry so unique.
Shortly after this call for stories, we heard from representatives at Global Ground Support and how their deicing vehicle manufacturer’s history was intertwined with our own past here at Ground Support Worldwide.
The common link between the two was our magazine’s founder George Prill.
“If it wasn’t for George Prill, we wouldn’t be here,” Laurie Kyle, director of sales and marketing at Global Ground Support, said.
Leonard Martin, a former director at Air T, explained Prill was a board member at Air T while also producing our publication – then called GSE Today. According to Martin, Air T was looking for an opportunity to expand. At the same time, Terex Crane was looking to discontinue its Simon Aviation line of deicer vehicles. Prill suggested Air T acquire Simon.
“We bought the deicing business from them,” Martin recalled. “There was a vacant building 100 yards up the road from where they were. So, we just moved the operation up the road and hired a number of their people that were involved with the deicing business that they were going to lay off.
“That’s the way that Global got started.”
Later, on Sept. 1, 1997, Simon Aviation rebranded as Global Ground Support.
This acquisition was in line with Prill’s big picture vision for the ground support equipment industry, according to Martin.
“George’s philosophy was, we’ve got the big companies … but the ground equipment is splintered out into so many pieces,” Martin recalled. “George got the idea and decided to pull the GSE equipment together. He started the GSE magazine and started trade shows once a year in Las Vegas so everybody could show their own wares.
“Through that process, then we became aware from the airline side, of a lot more equipment and a lot more vendors,” he continued. “He pulled that support equipment piece together and it let you meet and know all the people from all the airlines that were responsible for that end of the business.”
The ground support industry is tightknit, and there are certainly more stories like this one. Again, we encourage you to help us celebrate our milestone year by helping us reflect on the industry’s beginnings as well as looking ahead to where the industry may take us over the next 30 years.
Please stay in touch by emailing [email protected].
