BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

DEBORD — Twenty-six years after Gary Wayne Cox took charge of an overgrown airfield that looked more like a hayfield than an airport, the community he helped build gathered Aug. 1 to put his name on its terminal.

The Big Sandy Regional Airport board dedicated the Gary W. Cox Terminal before local and state aviation officials, family and friends, honoring the longtime manager whose vision, hard work and hospitality transformed the facility into what speakers called one of Kentucky’s finest airports.

Board chairman Jerry Price said Cox, owner of Cox Aviation, has managed the airport for more than 26 years.

“It’s a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week job,” Price said.

Cox is a pilot, a Kentucky Aviation Association Airport Manager of the Year, a Kentucky Ace and a member of the KAA Airport Planning and Zoning Committee.

He often jokes that a person only needs to know two things to operate an airport: how to pump gas and mow grass.

“Gary knows that is not totally true,” Price said.

Price said Cox’s hospitality and commitment to customer service distinguish Big Sandy Regional Airport.

“There’s no doubt if you come here and land here, you get that,” he said.

That hospitality extends to military personnel, who eat free at the airport’s Cloud 9 Café.

“A military member never pays,” Price said.

Joe Collier, Cox’s lifelong friend, recalled watching him transform the property from a weed-covered airfield into a modern and welcoming airport.

“When he hung a few pictures and was taking flying lessons, I knew he was going to be here for a while,” Collier said.

In the early days, Collier said, the airport was quiet enough that the two friends occasionally used it to hit golf balls.

That ended as Cox became busier running deer and elk from the runway, repairing fences and cutting an ever-expanding amount of grass.

“Every few years, he would talk to the board about a bigger lawnmower, which, of course, caused more grass cutting,” Collier said.

Looking around the airport Cox helped create, Collier offered his verdict.

“In my opinion, we’re standing in the most beautiful airport in Kentucky,” he said.

Col. Steve Parker, a former Kentucky Department of Aviation commissioner and military pilot, traveled from across the state to honor Cox.

Parker has logged more than 8,000 flight hours and flown in 72 countries. He said Kentucky became his home after his final Air Force assignment brought him to the state in 1997.

“You have no idea how blessed you are to be Kentuckians,” Parker told the crowd. “I do because I’ve lived everywhere.”

Parker began visiting Big Sandy Regional Airport in 2004 and returned several times each year. Over time, Cox became more than a professional colleague.

“I got to know Gary Cox not just as a work associate but as a dear friend,” Parker said.

He described Big Sandy as one of his two favorite airports in Kentucky, along with Danville.

“Every time I would come here, it was like coming home to family,” Parker said.

The visits offered good food at Cloud 9 Café, stories about Cox’s grandson Knox and updates about Cox’s wife, Rossalene, who once won two cars on a game show.

“Cars, food, friends and Knox stories every time I came,” Parker said.

Parker once brought his adult Bible study class to Jenny Wiley State Resort Park for a play and included a tour of Big Sandy Regional Airport.

“For years they kept wanting to talk about the tour, the food and the experience at Big Sandy Airport,” he said.

Parker said Kentucky aviation is thriving, with airports across the state experiencing growth and improvements.

“So many of our airports are amazing, but I’m telling you, none are as amazing as Big Sandy,” Parker said. “You’ve got leadership here that is amazing. I’m so proud of you, Gary.”

Cox’s grandchildren unveiled the new lettering bearing their grandfather’s name on the terminal.

Cox told the crowd that he had heard the word “proud” repeatedly throughout the ceremony. But another word better described how he felt.

“I am proud, but the word that keeps rattling through my head is not pride as much as it’s ‘humbling,’” Cox said.

He credited the Federal Aviation Administration, the Kentucky Department of Aviation and the local airport board for helping the airport succeed.

“To run an airport, to be successful, to have a good, solid airport that serves your community, it’s not just the airport manager,” Cox said.

He said the local board remained committed to the airport even during its leanest years.

“Without a good local board, you can’t have a good airport,” he said. “Everything I’ve ever asked for at this airport, people like Jerry, Duell Sturgill and John Crum have gone out of their way to make sure that we got it here and we’re taken care of.”

Cox noted that the airport operates without funding from local governments.

“This airport is self-sufficient,” he said. “We’ve always been self-sufficient, and that hasn’t been easy in the early days.”

Revenue from airport hangars and increased state support have made operations easier, he said, but local board members kept the airport alive when survival was difficult.

Cox returned to his familiar joke about cutting grass and pumping gas, then explained what running an airport truly requires.

“You have to know that that runway out there, that 5,000-foot runway, is a welcome mat for this community,” Cox said. “When people land here, they need to know what a great place they’re landing at.”

Visitors routinely marvel at the mountains surrounding the airport, he said.

“Most people who land here will say, ‘Wow, you live in a beautiful place,’” Cox said.

Although his name now greets those who enter the terminal, Cox said the honor that mattered most was belonging to the Eastern Kentucky community that gathered to celebrate with him.

“This many people come out here for this, to show your respect—that is Eastern Kentucky right here,” Cox said. “You’re the most generous, caring people on the face of this planet.”

He closed with a simple message.

“I love this airport, and I love every one of you too.”