The David Luening Memorial Scholarship for aviation enthusiasts has been established, with a total contribution of $26,500 over four years, which includes a contribution of more than $16,000 from George Bauer at the Bauer Foundation. The new scholarship was announced at Thursday’s Martha’s Vineyard Airport Commission meeting. Luening was a seasonal resident of Edgartown, and one of the founders of Cape Air.
“We’re incredibly honored by this,” Kristen Zern, an airport commissioner, said.
Dan Wolf, CEO of Cape Air, was on Thursday’s Zoom call, and said Cape Air had 30 years of history with Luening, who joined the company through a merger with Edgartown Air. “He became a really good friend and mentor here. He did some consulting at Cape Air,” Wolf said. “He was a very active board member.”
Wolf said Luening had many passions in his life, in particular his family. “He was a friend, a mentor, a father figure in some ways, a brother and a friend in other ways, and it is such an honor to continue his legacy and passion for aviation by making this an ongoing support for folks on Martha’s Vineyard who want to learn how to fly,” Wolf said.
Bauer called Luening the “ultimate gentleman,” who was a “dear friend” for 50 years. “Dave Luening stands out as one of the outstanding gentlemen — thoughtful, kind, a great family man, and outstanding person.”
Randy Luening, David’s son, spoke on behalf of the family. “We’re just delighted to do this, and my father loved aviation and loved the Vineyard and loved contributing to people’s lives. We’re pleased to see this come forward, and hopefully it will be beneficial and impactful to future generations of pilots.”
Wolf said Cape Air would be looking to hire these homegrown pilots, joking that it’s a plus that they’ll already have housing on the Island.
Zern said she could not yet announce this year’s recipient, but added it is a young woman who has vowed to become a commercial pilot.
She welcomed Irene Ziebarth at the beginning of the presentation, who has been active in getting funds for the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation, a nonprofit that collects money for the aviation scholarship. (Disclosure: Ziebarth does part-time work for The Times.) The foundation has previously helped two other students — Max Smith and Kelly Cleary, who both attend the CCCC airplane maintenance program held at the Plymouth Airport — go into aviation, Zern wrote in a follow-up email.
When he was introduced, Wolf joked about being the former state senator representing the Island. “I can’t do anything on Martha’s Vineyard either in person or virtually without whispering to you: What a privilege it was to serve you as your state senator for those three terms, and don’t tell anyone, but Martha’s Vineyard was my favorite part of the district.”
Meanwhile, the airport commissioners renewed their distaste for legislation proposed by current state Senator Julian Cyr (D-Truro) that would hit personal, charter, or corporate aircraft with a $1,000 fee for each airport touchdown. Under the legislation, the accumulated fees would be used to invest in state infrastructure affected by climate change.
“It was the most poorly thought out piece of legislation that I can imagine,” Rosenbaum said. Airport commissioner Richard Knabel said Cyr’s legislation would stymie noncommercial aviation (general aviation), and the fees would be a trifle to the rich.
“The motivation being to stop the millionaires and billionaires from flying their big jets and so on and so forth — it’s preposterous, because $1,000 for millionaires and billionaires is pocket change, and it wouldn’t stop them from doing anything, and the only thing it would stop is all the [general aviation] activity here and everywhere else, particularly at the airports that only deal with [general aviation],” he said.
Rosenbaum noted the airport is making its own progress to help offset climate change. “We at the airport are doing a lot toward environmental mitigation,” Rosenbaum said. He pointed to Airport Director Geoff Freeman and some airport committees as being “very active” in that capacity, and said inroads had been made “in terms of adding photovoltaic panels everywhere we can, bringing on electric vehicles, and eventually … bringing on the infrastructure for electric planes.”
In other business, Freeman was highly praised for his work stepping in as airport director after the departure of Cindi Martin, particularly during the pandemic. The commissioners approved a salary increase from $130,000 to $168,460, which brings his pay in line with what Martin was receiving. Freeman is working without an assistant airport director, a role he filled for years.
Rich Saltzberg contributed to this report.