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A R C H I V E S

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

     Often we observe people being honored at fundraisers and at industry meetings and trade shows. While we endorse the proposition that hard work and excellence in air cargo should be recognized whenever possible, it occurs to Air Cargo News that this kind of recognition of industry people is not celebrated nearly enough.
     There are scores of unsung individuals in our industry who you should know about working in various job functions within air cargo at locations around the world.
     It is the mission of “Honors” to tell you about people in our great industry who make or have made a difference.
     Our column will feature a different person (s) every month both here at aircargonews.com and in the monthly newspaper.
     You are encouraged to suggest someone for this recognition.
     Send a nomination with short descriptive information about somebody or some people that you think should appear in Honors
     Address your e-mail and comments: Honors@aircargonews.com.
     To begin this series, from now until January we feature somebody we know and admire.

     He sold the company he built into a powerhouse in 1997 to United Parcel Service, getting what must have amounted to everything and a bag of chips, against anything that he might desire for the rest of his life.
     Mr. Fritz spent 35 of his 60 years creating a 10,000-employee, world multi-modal shipping Goliath across 120 countries.
     So what prompted Lynn Fritz to get the UPS settle-up and then begin an organization that would funnel his world-class knowledge in information technology to help humanitarian relief organizations cope with emergency situations around the world?
     Something bigger than all of us is the probable answer.
     But when the capacity of the human heart allows one of the better-known and admired air cargo executives of the past quarter century to reach out like Lynn Fritz has, the door that has been opened can serve to radiate sunshine upon the better demons in all of us.
     The Lynn Fritz Institute in San Francisco, dedicated to mobilizing disaster management expertise has received about $4 million from Mr. Fritz.
     A small, dedicated staff daily goes about developing new applications for commercial tracking secrets.
     Now the International Red Cross in Geneva Switzerland is testing born-again information technology.
     A disaster is bad enough. Often the effort to send humanitarian aid is a logistical nightmare.
     Fritz Institute software for the Red Cross is a first step of bigger things to come.
     Soon that great organization will be able to locate and move relief supplies with greater transparency.
     “Taking something of one part of my life and applying it to help others is an intellectually and emotionally compelling mission,” Lynn Fritz said.
     The view of this soft-spoken and unassuming, worthwhile gentleman with a heavy bag of grain slung over one shoulder as he helped unload a truck in some god-forsaken African village in early December just prior to Christmas 2002 was compelling.
     Fritz Institute people pitching in to bring famine and relief supplies to the starving, and AIDS victims in South Africa were both reaching out to help, and also studying the way to get help to a problem faster.
     We kept thinking, what’s the angle?
     But a long time ago we decided in these matters, if you can’t do better, at least applaud the effort.
     This guy lifts everybody in air cargo.
     www.fritzinstitute.org.

Air Cargo News Salutes
Rudy Auslander

     It is not without a certain amount of thought that we celebrate Rudy here as our first honoree.
     In fact, as a matter of respect for Mr. Auslander, we will run this story here until January 1, 2003.
     We have been publishing this newspaper for twenty-seven years.

Rudolph Auslander

     Rudy Auslander is the finest person that we have met.
     Often, you come across people who are good at their profession but their personal lives are impossible.
     Rudy is at the top of his form in everything he does.
     He oversees and helped create the big Japan Airlines Management Corp. Hangar 14 complex (Cargo Building 151), at JFK International Airport in New York.
     This mighty machine, which moves 40% of all the air cargo at the gateway, is the standard, by which advanced air cargo terminals are measured.
     Japan Airlines Management Corp.’s distinctive towered air cargo facility at JFK stands with the world’s best; the greatest air cargo operation on earth.
     Rudolph H. Auslander was born in Cooks Falls, New York (a small town in upstate New York) in 1935.
     “Rudy,” as he likes to be called, served in the U.S. Air Force after graduating high school in 1953.
     He attended the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. Before coming to New York in 1964, he worked for IT&T Arctic, which built and operated the Distance Early Warning System, known as the DEWLINE. It was there where he gained his experience in transportation and construction working as a logistics specialist.
     In 1964, he joined American Airlines and worked in various areas of their Air Freight Services. In 1969, he was sought out by Japan Airlines and was instrumental in establishing their cargo operation at JFK.
     During the next twenty years he held various positions in JAL at JFK.
     In 1989, he was appointed by JAL as president of the newly formed Japan Airlines Management Corp. (JMC). JMC a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan Airlines Co., Ltd., charged with the redevelopment and management of the Bldg. 14 project at JFK (The former Pan Am Hangar complex).
     Rudy was the driving force behind this project which involved the construction of $115 million cargo terminal for JAL (Bldg. 151), multi-tenant facility, and construction of the $51 million consolidated airport headquarters for the Port Authority Of NY & NJ and General Aviation Terminal.
     Rudy likes to refer to this cargo facility as the 21st Century Cargo Terminal’ designed to take JAL well into the 21st Century. The facility has the capability of handling in excess of 200,000 tons of cargo throughput per year. Today this facility is not only the largest automated cargo facility at JFK, it is the only multi-tenant, full service facility complete with a Medical Office, Dental Office, full service restaurant, Custom Brokers, Air Cargo Handling for a number of airlines, Freight Forwarders, Air Couriers, Lawyers as well as other amenities.
     As mentioned during Rudy’s 38 years at JFK Airport, he has always been a soft touch for a worthwhile cause. How he balances his charitable work with all his other responsibilities is fodder for a ‘how to’ book.
     Rudy Auslander has been an active member of the JFK Chamber of Commerce since 1980 having served as its president 1996-1999.
     He has also served as KAAMCO Cargo Operations Committee President 1980 and again 1988.
     Rudy was JFK Airport Security Council Chairman 1984 after which he served as World Air Cargo Professionals (SWAP) Secretary 1986.
     On top of all that Rudy is a member of the Air Cargo Association, an active member of the JFK Protestant Chapel (Christ the World Chapel), and is currently JFK Rotary Club President 2001/2002.

Views of Cargo Building 151, JFK Int'l Airport

I do not see why I should ever turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear.
They would not find me changed from him they knew-
Only more sure of all I thought was true.

     Rudy Auslander lifts everybody.