Richard Malkin at
The Reichstag Berlin, 1948. Malkin’s coverage
of The Berlin Airlift (1948-49) invented modern air
cargo journalism.
 FlyingTypers’ Senior Contributing Editor Richard Malkin turns 103
years young today June 27, 2016.
Richard holds the unique
distinction of being the only air cargo reporter you
can still talk to who covered the Berlin Airlift; with
that one act, he practically invented air cargo journalism.
Dick has lived and outlived
almost everybody he has ever written about.
He was the first air cargo
editor in the first air cargo publication Air Transportation,
founded in New York City in 1942.
For us, who love this
man for all his seasons of air cargo, June 27th is a
shared celebration—exciting, hopeful, wonderful—and
by any measure, a really big deal.
Dawn
Of An Era
Richard Malkin has stated
that he entered into air cargo as a way “to buttress
his bank account” until he could move on to something
he loved.
In fact, at the time he
covered the Berlin Airlift in 1948 for the aforementioned
publication Air Transportation, Dick had also won literary
recognition and an O. Henry Award for a short story
“Pico Never Forgets.”
But apparently, commercial
writing paid better, and with a young family, money
at hand ruled the day.
Malkin’s series
of stories about the Berlin Airlift joined the global
coverage of that epoch event, dominating Air Transportation Magazine, which was owned by John Budd (who also published The Import Export Bulletin that sold for 50
cents and was akin to today’s Zagat Survey, but
for shipping). Budd can be credited in allowing Malkin
free rein to cover how air cargo saved Berlin.
Richard Malkin ruled the
roost during the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s,
for a total of 35 years as editor of Air Transportation,
which became Cargo Airlift and has switched
owners a half dozen times since his era, now existing
as Air Cargo World.
Saving
Shannon
Of particular note was
an article Dick did about Shannon Airport during the
1950s. It drew attention to the facility’s entrance
into the jet era at a critical time, when business there
had slowed to a crawl.
The power of a publication
dedicated to the global air cargo industry was felt,
and for his effort Malkin received the first in what
has become a stream of recognition awards over the past
half century, as he was named an Honorary Fellow of
the Irish International Freight Association.
Malkin
& Other Publications
 Samuel Morse may have
invented Morse Code and The Journal of Commerce (published as a broad sheet here in New York for over
a century), but Dick Malkin breathed new life into the
publication. Life began again at age 65 for Malkin;
he departed Cargo Airlift and teamed up with
a super salesman named Marty Brennan. Together, they
brought the JOC’s Air Commerce publication
into air cargo big time.
Malkin was at JOC for
13 years until, for some unknown reason, Air Commerce was abruptly put down.
Then, as mentioned earlier,
Dick joined our Air Cargo News in 1990 as Editor,
serving here until 1994. During that time he was also
an editor for Distribution Magazine.
Then came Cargo Network
Services, where Dick served as Editor of CNS Focus.
Along the way, Dick Malkin
found consulting, speechwriting, and editing work, all
while serving as editor and chief and guiding force
of an industry publication.
For many years during
his Cargo Airlift career, Dick did most of
the writing for the KLM Cargo customer magazine, CargoVision.
Dick Malkin’s long
career has also included a few books worth noting, including
his landmark Boxcars In The Sky from 1951.
If you can get it (Amazon
or eBay are good sources), Boxcars is a treasure,
chock full of pictures and heavy-duty text that underscore
Malkin’s now lifelong belief in air cargo.
Malkin touchingly dedicated
the work to his children, simply saying:
“To Barry &
Susan . . . may they live in a world
where aerial boxcars carry the goods of peace.”
But the knockout passage
and a trademark “Malkinesque” twist in his
otherwise technical writings, was the quoting of Lord
Alfred Tennyson from “Locksley Hall” in
an air cargo book.
“For
I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw
the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would
be;
Saw
the heavens filled with commerce, argosies of magic
sails,
Pilots
of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales….”
“The heavens filled
with commerce and pilots with costly bales are modern
day reality, already accepted by the shipper, the receiver
and the consumer,” Malkin wrote.
Every time I read that
passage in Boxcars, I’m glad I chose
to be a writer of air cargo.
Photo 1.—
Richard Malkin with his late wife Helen
and son Barry. Photo 2.—Richard
and his daughter Susan. |
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Some
of the stuff he wrote for our Air Cargo News during his four-year tenure (a total of 48 issues),
still just jumps off the page.
As we celebrate The Malkin
Century, we laud Richard Malkin's unwavering ability
to reach back and remember his years spent shaping the
air cargo conversation.
He is a great example
of the old truism that tells us the best way to know
where you're going is by remembering where you've been.
Happy 103rd Birthday,
Richard.
Geoffrey/Flossie
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