By Kim Siebert MacPhail
Massport’s out-going director of L.G. Hanscom Field, Barbara Patzner, was recognized at a retirement reception on Friday, February 22, by superiors, officials, colleagues and community members.
Massport’s new CEO and Executive Director Thomas Glynn said that Patzner has had “an amazing 25-year career” adding that she has performed “a balancing act to end all balancing acts” with the corporate community’s interests related to Hanscom on the one hand and responsibilities to the citizens of the surrounding towns on the other.
“Barbara has done a fantastic job working with community leaders to come up with some programs that have tried to improve what we’re doing in the community but at the same time being respectful of the important role that Hanscom plays in the economy. That has not been easy,” Glynn said.
Colonel Juan Gaud, representing Hanscom Air Force Base, said that Patzner had not only made great contributions to Massachusetts aviation during her career, but had also affected the Air Force in favorable ways.
“We, at the 66th [Airborne] are very, very lucky that we have an airport, but we don’t have to pay for it,” Gaud said to the amusement of the attendees to the reception. “Other Wing Commanders are kind of jealous. We are able to leverage what we have, to combine the effort and the synergy between the two organizations, [civilian and military]. We are able to work together to provide services to the civilian part and also to the military.
“Hanscom has become one of the central points around the Northeast when it comes to emergency management,” Gaud continued. “When Sandy blew through, Hanscom was one of the fields that deployed rescue helicopters. Now we’re increasing the capability of Hanscom Air Force Base, but leveraging what you [Hanscom Air Field] provide. That’s huge. We have given FEMA another tool to utilize: Hanscom Field. And that is thanks to what [Patzner] has done.”
The Chair of Concord’s Board of Selectmen, Carmin Reiss, thanked Patzner for addressing community concerns, including noise pollution, traffic, development, Minuteman Park, flight patterns, night operations and security.
“I’m really delighted to have this opportunity to recognize Barbara Patzner and to thank her for her 25 years of work with the surrounding communities while she’s been at the helm of Hanscom Field,” Reiss said. “I’m particularly grateful as a parent, because my son learned how to fly here in the years after 9/11, and I was very glad to know that there was security for him and for all the rest of us.”
Reiss also thanked Patzner for her community participation. “I really have to say that Barbara has dealt with all the communities honestly and fairly and constructively, even when the communities weren’t necessarily easy to deal with. Barbara’s left us a legacy in good practices and in the person of Sharon Williams [her successor in the job of airport director],” Reese concluded.
In her response, Patzner said that her 25 years at Hanscom Field have “flown by.”
“Things only fly by when you’re having a really good time and you’re really absorbed and you really feel challenged,” said Patzner. “I’ve always felt challenged here, I have to say. But challenges are opportunities. I’ve always felt that no negative thing is ever really negative. You just move forward.
“Community folks—I might get nervous when I had to meet with them, but you always look for that common ground and I think we’ve made some progress,” Patzner continued. “Most recently, we needed to clear those approaches [in Bedford to one of the landing strips] and how long did it take? But we got there and I’m very proud that we’re there and Bedford got some nice trails and we worked that out. To me, that was really meaningful.
“Before I leave, I just want to say a personal ‘Thank you’ to everyone that I’ve ever worked with because even though sometimes we had to disagree, I’ve always felt that you could get to the fine point and you could always leave that room and shake hands.”
At the close of her remarks, Patzner called her successor, Sharon Williams, the perfect person to continue looking for common ground between competing needs.
In another introduction, Massport’s CEO Glynn, said that Williams “knows the community and knows what the challenges are, but has demonstrated an ability to navigate the balancing act necessary to run a major facility— important to the state’s economy—in a suburban community.”
A memo prepared for the occasion described Hanscom Field as a “vital link to domestic and international business destinations for local and regional employees” that contributes more than $249M to the regional economy on an annual basis.
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