Connie O'Regan and his wife Virginia both worked for the old Dade County Port Authority that was abolished in 1973 and renamed to the Dade County Aviation Department. Connie was promoted to the only Airfield Operations Supervisor position that we had in 1976 after the death of Airfield Supervisor III Bob Royster.

Connie, and Connie's name, were well known all over the entire airfield at Miami International Airport and he ran a tight ship. He was responsible for the entire airport's airfield outside of the terminal building and within the airport's perimeter fences. This included all of the terminal ramps, taxiways, runways, cargo areas and maintenance areas. In 1978 our section was also tasked with the new gate assignment functions controlling the airline usage of twelve new gates on the E-Satellite, six non-leased gates on old Concourse E (formerly Concourse 4), two non-leased gates on Concourse D (formerly Concourse 5) and three non-leased gates on Concourse F (formerly Concourse 3). The gate assignment section received their own Airfield Supervisor in 1982 or 1983 and Bruce Drum was promoted to the position. In 1986 I became the Gate Control Supervisor after Bruce was promoted to Chief of Airside Operations after Ron Gunther was promoted to Assistant Director for Operations after Charlie Mauch retired.

Connie and Virginia both retired in 1988 and traveled all over the country in a motor home. They finally settled down in Venice, Florida. Connie was in a Veterans Administration facility in Port Charlotte, Florida, for the last six years of his life and he passed away from Alzheimer's on October 7, 2011 at the age of 92.

Godspeed and RIP Connie!

Click on the image with Connie's name to view his obituary from the Miami Herald or view the image of his obituary with his photo.