NOVEMBER, 1964
THE PI^DMONITOR
PAGE THREE
Station Spotlight
Columbus Has Tradition,
Enthusiasm, and Initiative
Columbus is as American as
baseball,, as sophisticated as a
production of “Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Wolfe?” as homey as a
good old fashioned clambake, as
peaceful as fifty acres of eye-
high corn, as busy as several
hundred workers constructing
five skyscrapers in a hurry, as
enthusiastic as eighty-four thou
sand spectators cheering theii''
football team to victory, and as
elusive as a business man con
centrating on his first big deal.
But above all, Columbus is big.
And the metropolitan area has
been plopped in the middle of
the rich Ohio farm belt. At first
glance, the city is like any other
big city — busy, nonchalant, and
self-concerned. Columbus has a
population of a half-million peo
ple; the metropolitan area, over
three-quarters of a million. And
the area is growing at the rapid
rate of 76 persons a day. In fact,
since its inception, Columbus
has experienced a steady growth
in population. In 1812, the then
unsettled stretch of land along
the Scioto River was selected as
the site for the capitol of the
new state of Ohio. A capitol
building was erected and by
1816, when the legislature’s first
session was held there, the town
had a population of some 700
settlers. Thus, Columbus did not
become the Capitol of Ohio; rath
er, the capitol became Columbus.
It was destined to become a ma
jor crossroads.
CMH Is Transportation Pioneer
The city’s location makes it a
strategic transportation center.
In the 1830’s, stage coach lines
radiated in all directions and riv
er boats provided connections
not only with other cities, but
with larger systems of water
transport. The first “iron horse”
chugged into Columbus on Feb
ruary 22, 1850, and within twen
ty years, five major railways
crossed through the city.
The next major step in trans
portation came in 1929, when Co
lumbus, still a pioneer, opened
Port Columbus to handle the most
glamorous of planes, the Ford
Tri-Motor. At that time, the Port
provided a major link in the
transcontinental air-rail passen
ger service which cut traveling
time between San Francisco and
"Hey, who's selling tickets?" asks Joe Frase as (left to right) Ray Camp
bell, Frase, and Paul Gustafson all try to work the flight. Actually,
Shirley and JoAnne were watching both counter and phone.
New York from over a hundred
hours to 48 hours.
of pride in trying to make the
station at CMH the best that it
can possibly be.
World War II was responsible
for later improvement of the air
port. The 4 million dollar Naval
Air Station adjacent to the Port, r ■ i ^ • i*
necessitated the goveriiment’s o!,®’
spending millions of dollars to
City Has Farms And Industry
What is Columbus? It’s a me-
improve and lengthen the run
ways. Again in the 50’s, the peo
ple of Columbus recognized that
the airport had to expand. The
culmination of their efforts was
an intensive program during the
fifties which resulted in a 10,-
700 foot east-west runway and a
research, educations, sports, and
culture. It’s a city that was nam
ed “All America” by Look Maga
zine. It’s a cab driver who knows
his way around his city and who
can’t wait to tell his eager pas
senger about the game Ohio
State won last week—or will
This statute of Christopher Columbus stands in the
Columbus City Hall Plaza. The statue was a gift
from the citizens and school children of Genoa, Italy,
Christopher Columbus' birthplace, to the citizens and
school children of Columbus, Ohio. The 20-foot,
3'/2 ton, bronze figure was designed and executed
by internationally known sculptor Edoardo Alfieri.
and governmental interests, Co- radios once while the Cards and
lumbus has become a test center
in the United States. It was fea
tured in the Reader’s Digest as
the place where new soaps, new
tires, new methods are tried.
Columbus Is People
win this Saturday. It’s close
modern, 4 million dollar terminal enough to steel, coal, and gas
building. The Y-shaped building supplies to be ideal for both
includes nine loading gates heavy and light industry. Unlike
which can handle 13 giant air- many metropolitan areas, Colum-
liners at one time. The airport bus is situated amidst miles of
is served by seven major air- lush farm lands. The city still
lines and daily lands everything has room to grow, not only up
from a TWA super jet to Pied- but out as well. Sixty per cent
mont’s Martin 404 to a private of the population of the United its
Piper Colt. The hope is that the States lives within a 550-mile
But a city is not an industry,
nor a plot of ground, nor a chem
lab, nor a skyscraper. A city is
the people who live in it. What
are the people of Columbus?
Some of them are extremely
concerned that the city does not
surge
ahead. These are the business
men and leaders of Columbus.
Yankees battled out the World
Series. They leave streets desert
ed, stores empty, and houses
strangely quiet on those Satur
days when Ohio State’s Woody
Hayes puts his team into action
at the OSU Stadium. They cheer
the more recently acclaimed
Ohio State’s basketball team as
it literally rocks St. John’s
Arena.
Some of the people attend the
legitimate theater in Columbus.
Some prefer attending chamber
music concerts or going to the
symphony. Many visit the Shu-
macker art collection or view the
airport will handle international radius,
traffic within the next few years. city’s central location has Ex State Senator Kline Roberts, works^of Vuch artists as Rubens
Pipdmnnt nlavs an imoortant important plants such as now President of the Columbus Gainsborough, and American
FieamOIil, pidyb dll ixiip WpQtpm Innatinp' thprp. Arpa Phamhpr nf Pnmmprpp /-i -n.n ^4.
Station manager Wallace Kerr
checks through his daily mail.
part in the airport’s operation,
offering connecting transporta
tion to smaller cities in Ohio as
well as in the Virginia-North
Carolina area. Although it han
dles only four flights at Colum
bus each day, CMH boards well
over 1000 passengers per month.
Watching the enthusiastic sta
tion personnel at CMH justifies
this figure.
Kerr Found “Friendly Yankees"
Seven agents, along with Sta
tion Manager Wallace Kerr,
work the flights and handle
tickets and reservations. “Wally,”
as he is called by all who know
him, was strictly from south
of the Mason-Dixon line when he
was transferred from Roanoke to
manager at CMH last November.
He was greeted, he says incred
ulously, by “friendly Yankees.”
And agents Shirley Sword, Jo
Anne Sharpe, Ray Campbell, Joe
Frase, Bert Carlos, Paul Gustaf
son, and Keith Douglas are that.
Most of them are long time em
ployees of Piedmont and they all
feel a particular attachment to
the Company. With unusual con
cern for Piedmont’s progress,
Shirley and Jo Anne, working at
the counter, do everything but
lasso passengers in order to
make their quotas. There is a lot
Western Electric locating there. Area Chamber of Commerce,
North American Aviation, Inc., with the chamber, has just initi-
formerly the Curtis Wright Cor- ated a new program known as
poration, manufactures jet mili- the Blue Plan to establish a pat-
tary aircraft and geoframes. In tern of growth for Columbus,
addition, much aeronautical re- Looking ahead as much as twen-
search is carried on within the ty years into the future, com-
plant. The agricultural interests mittees are already studying
lead to a need for farm insurance such problems as water control,
which in turn resulted in 33 parking availability, research
major insurance companies, now facilities, and trade possibilities,
active in all fields of insurance,
locating their home offices in
Columbus.
Some of the people are the
ones who would not leave their
George Bellows, at the Colum
bus Gallery of Fine Arts. They
read Shakespeare, Churchill, and
Frank Yerby from the shelves
of the Columbus library or one
of its 15 branches.
Some of the people play golf,
or tend to their well-kept homes,
or ski on one of the nearby
slopes. But they all live in Co
lumbus. And it is they who are
Columbus.
On the more academic side of
the picture, Columbus has more
than its share of brain power. ^—
There are five institutes of high
er learning in Columbus, includ
ing Ohio State University with
its enrollment of over 33,500 stu
dents. Its various graduate and
undergraduate programs have
provided a preponderance of
highly trained minds. This re
source, coupled with the ever-
reaching needs of industry, have
made Columbus research con
scious. In addition to the re
search carried on at the Univer
sity itself, several research in
stitutes have been established in
Columbus, including B a t e 1 le
Memorial Institute, Bell Tele
phone Laboratories, and Indus
trial Nucleonics Agent Shirley Sword, left receives a teletype message from RCA res-
Because of the cross section of ervations, while JoAnne Short, right, who's been with Piedmont for 9
agrarian, industrial, educational years, checks in a passenger at the baggage counter.