When Harry Met George
Hi Everyone! It's me..George! And look....I'm in the
computer..can't you see me waving to you? I'm back on the beat with my new
feature called "Everybody is a Star" And I'm in the Bright Lights Music
website www.brightlightsmusic.com so I'm
actually singing my column to you. I think the computer just laughed at me, can
they do that? Someone laughed or was that everyone reading this? Ok then, if
you don't want me to sing, I will write you a song like my
little buddy Judy does.
Oh give me a home where the Red Sox make me moan
And the rain comes down in buckets each day
Don't worry friends ...the sun will shine again
Cause Harry Minich is my first star today !
Ladies and gentleman meet the distinguished Harry Minich, the first star on my wall of fame. He's not only been my
friend and colleague for most of my life but now your friend too... because I'm
going to tell you all about him.
Everyone that followed my column in "The Airport News" knows
how much I love CT's Bradley International Airport and the people there. Harry
was one of them for over thirty years. We spent many a day working together. We
took bus trips and have flown everywhere on vacation. We worked the runways in
the snow and ice storms and I have grown to respect him for the gentleman that
he is. Here, let me get my deep distinguished voice going cause I want to be
just like Harry. Huhum...huhum.. "Well George, let me
tell you what we are going to do today" Yes Harry, please tell me. My idea is
to talk about your wonderful life.
Harry was born and raised in Bradford, Pennsylvania...or did you
say Transylvania, Harry? "Huhum...no George I did not say that". I know Harry,
just having a little fun. Are you keeping up with this Judy?
My friend Harry was born in Bradford, PA the high grade oil
metropolis of the world. Anyone from that area knows of it as the first oil boom
town. And as Harry tells us the first well ever drilled was the Drake well
right there. This year they will be celebrating 150 years of that distinction with festivities at the museum etc. on Aug 27th. Harry! Maybe we should get
tickets on US Airways from station manager Jack Foley and go drill for oil in
our retirement? It could be the "Minich-Ulitsch well"...and we'll be like J.R. on Dallas. Just don't shoot me.
Now Harry was raised and schooled in boom town which led him
to a career in the Air Force. He spent the majority of his time in England, a
place that has become near and dear to his heart as he loved it there. He was
stationed in two different areas, North London and then Kent County at Manston
RAF Station, an enormous air base with 22,000 personnel present. At Manston in
the 1950's, Harry was surrounded by the likes of F86-D heavy Fighter Bombers,
SAC and TAC, and operation FIDO was instituted there. Harry tells us that the
runways would be lined with a streak of fuel and illuminated so that Queen
Elizabeth's plane could land safely in the fog. It was during his time at Manston that Harry met the love of
his life Anne. They were married there and in Ramsgate welcomed twin boys and
settled in Cliftonville.
In 1954 Harry returned to the U.S. with his family flying from
Prestwick, Scotland in a DC-6 B all the way across the Atlantic to Westover Air
Force base in Massachusetts. He said when he got off the plane both he and Anne
were amazed at the climate. The heat hit him and he said it was a shock after
being in England for so long. It's the same kind of hot air that constantly comes
from George...unbearable!
Harry mustered out at Fort Dix, New Jersey and flew home
to PA on the airline he would come to work for during his next 12 years in
Bradford, Allegheny
Airlines. At Bradford Municipal, Harry did everything from the ramp to baggage
to taking tickets, going fishing, and becoming supervisor there. He and Anne
added a daughter, Lesley, to their beautiful family during their time
there.
In 1967 Harry came to Bradley International where he would
spend over 30 years of his life running Allegheny, which later became US
Airways. He was the station manager there for the rest of his career. He says he
made the friendships of a lifetime in the good people here, he even includes me
in the list. He said the first and only good thing I ever did for him was let
him hire my daughter Beth (Ulitsch) West. She has now been working at US
Airways for 29 years and it was Harry who gave her a good start. Her husband
Bobby West also has a career with them thanks to Harry.
In retrospect, Harry looks at his many accomplishments through
what he refers to as "The storybook people that have touched his life". There
was Bill Joseph and Bill Hisle, two other station managers at Bradley that flew
back to England with Harry on a return visit. They saw Winston Churchill on 10
Downing St. with a big cigar hanging out of his mouth. That was me Harry! I was
just checking on you guys! He remembers Herb Prisner on snow duty and Dick
Brennan, who knew every wire that was connected to anything that worked at
Bradley International. And Jack Foley was one of the best men Harry ever worked
with and still to this day holds him in high regard. And as storybook endings
would have it, years later Jack Foley is now the current US Airways
station manger at Bradley following in Harry's great big footsteps. And then there was me, George Ulitsch, who Harry fondly calls "Larry the
Cable Guy"....you ask him to do something...and somehow he gets it done...
Harry thanks..I think?
Harry retired from Bradley in 1989 after many hours on the job
and in the air. He used to regularly meet actor Dennis Weaver on runs to
Colorado where they became good friends. Now Harry you have had such a colorful
career. You have done everything but land that plane in the Hudson. Don't you
wish we could meet Capt. "Sully" Sullenberger and interview him about that
infamous day and put it on our wall of fame? Judy can you make that happen?
That for sure was a miracle.
Now Harry, last but not least, being here at Bright Lights
Music, I have to ask you this. What is your favorite kind of music? "Oh George,
Waylon Jennings is my man. I love his music and George Jones... and the country
music of his time. I have many of their recordings that I love to listen to in
the car." Judy is now hoping that George doesn't know any of the words to any of
those songs, but he is going to sing regardless. Oh give me a
home..........
Harry remembers every experience and every person in his life
with great affection and says he would not change a second of it for
anything...and he is living happily ever after in the glow of his 6 grandchildren
watching them grow.
Well Harry, it's been a wonderful day here with you. You are
always the gentleman, with a love and expression for life like no other. I would
say I am a very lucky man to have you consider me your friend. Stay tuned for
another "Everybody is a Star" the third week in August. Until then....Happy Trails to you...
from George!
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