ED GERHARDT 1947 - 1981 STATION MANAGER, SALES REPRESENTATIVE, SALES MANAGER, REGIONAL MANAGER, DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL PROJECTS, DIRECTOR OF PUBLICITY, VICE PRESIDENT - PUBLIC RELATIONS DEN PHX Frontier's traffic gains - 1st nine months of 1951: 76,776 passengers 21 million rev. passenger miles 2,128 M pounds air freight Total Revenues - $2,993,000 Non-mail revenues $1,195,000 Silver City-Hurley service inaugurated 12/1/51 on route between Phoenix and El Paso. 200 people carried at $2.50 each on sight-seeing flights over area. Sales task force organized to "blitz" communities Sales team consisted of: Chet Lubben - DEN Vern Carlson - GJT Ed Gerhardt - PHX Mike Cook - SLC Dick White - ABQ/BIL Bob Evans & Brooke Burnham of CAL & BNF Jerry Kitchen - Cargo Sales Mgr. John Lindsay - Psgr. Sales Mgr. Worked in 36 on-line cities and 22 off-line cities with five solid months of sales travel. Called on 5,000 business firms, some 20,000 persons, 60 luncheon/dinner meetings, 40 travel movie showings with 35 to 400 people, 55 radio programs with 10 to 15 minute presentations 100 newspaper articles & distributed thousands of "Let's Get Acquainted" booklets. -SUNLINER NEWS, Dec 1951 Challenger Airlines Challenger Airlines was founded by George Snyder in 1947. Its president at the time of merger. Donald A. Duff, became Frontier's first vice president of sales. The airline was headquartered in Salt Lake City with offices in a downtown bank. Like Monarch, Challenger Airlines began operations using four DC-3s to serve its routes between Salt Lake City, Denver and Billings. A young man by the name of Edward H. Gerhardt was the airline's first station manager in Denver, and recalls the humble beginnings. There was no elaborate teletype system then, remembers Gerhardt. We used the TWX type where you had to type the number being contacted and very often you'd get some trucking firm in Ohio who'd get our load report instead of Salt Lake City, and wonder what it was all about. And our reservations in Denver consisted of two cigar boxes with 3 x 5 cards, he adds. When Challenger Airlines merged with Monarch and Arizona to become Frontier. Gerhardt remained in Denver with the merged company, and is now Director of Special Projects in Local Service Marketing. Ed Gerhardt is due to receive the company's 25-year service pin next year. -FL NEWS, Nov 1971 Ed Gerhardt has become Frontier's official historian. One of the early Challenger employees and a man directly involved in much of the company's progress, Gerhardt is on special assignment to write a definitive history of Frontier and its predecessor companies. Faced with a monumental task of researching and writing that will take a couple of years, he would appreciate ideas, anecdotes or photographs and employees may want to offer. You'll find him working on what he is calling "Air Trails Over the Old Trails" in Room 120 of the general office. Call him at 303/398-5001; he's love to hear from you. -FL NEWS, Sep/Oct 1978 Ed Gerhardt: A look at Frontier's history For Ed Gerhardt, telling the history of Frontier Airlines is a lot like reviewing his own career. He has been a part of the company since it started. Gerhardt, who recently retired from Frontier after 35 years of service, is currently writing Contrails Over The Old Trails. The book traces Frontier's development from the start of the local carrier concept after World War II, to the merger of three small airlines - Monarch, Challenger and Arizona - into Frontier in 1950, and the challenges and rewards of the 1950s through the 1980s. As part of his research, Gerhardt conducted more than 250 interviews with past presidents of the airline, past and present officers, pilots, flight attendants, station agents and mechanics. And, he has looked back at his own career. "I've seen it all," Gerhardt says. "I've watched Frontier grow from a small local service carrier to a major force in the airline industry. Most important, I've had the chance to participate in that growth." During his 35 years with the airline, Gerhardt held several positions, including Challenger Airlines' first station manager in Denver; district sales manager, based in Denver; regional sales manager, based in Phoenix; regional director of sales training, Denver; Frontier's first director of publicity; vice president of public relations; director of special projects, local service marketing; director of public affairs; and, most recently, company historian. "I was at Buckley Field in Denver at the end of World War II," Gerhardt recalls. "I liked the area and the people, and I decided to stay and attend Denver University - majoring in airline management - instead of going home to Michigan." "One day, George Snyder, president of Challenger Airlines, came to D.U. to recruit employees. When Challenger inaugurated its Denver to Salt Lake City run - with several stops - I worked at the station at Stapleton. Since there was no flying at night in those days - Challenger only had V.F.R. (visual flight rule) authority - I attended night classes at D.U." Gerhardt remembers a blizzard in 1949 in Wyoming that lasted 45 days. "It blocked all the roads and tracks, so the only way to get in and out was to fly. Challenger flew shuttles between Denver and Rawlins, and Salt Lake City and Rock Springs. In Rawlins, five Union Pacific trains were stranded, so we flew in food and clean linen and flew passengers out. For 45 days, we were the only link those people had. My job while in Rawlins was to contact the Union Pacific about the passengers to be shuttled back to Denver." After Challenger merged with Monarch and Arizona Airways to form Frontier in 1950, Gerhardt went to Phoenix as regional sales manager. He developed one of the industry's first 'interline' tour programs - a visit to the Grand Canyon via Frontier tailored to passengers flying to Phoenix on other carriers. "I offered reservations agents at American Airlines in New York and other cities in the East a five percent commission for booking the package. It started a trend." In the mid 1950s, Frontier's didn't have a formal reservations training program, so Gerhardt developed one. He also edited the airline's first employee newspaper, Sunliner News. "Frontier held celebrations - air fairs - in our cities in those days. We would fly over a town, drop timetables from the plane, and give a free ride to the person lucky enough to pick up a timetable with an 'X' marked on it. We also flew sightseeing runs. We also turned up the engines to let everyone know a plane was in town!" Gerhardt worked with news media reporters in Frontier cities in the 1960s and 1970s. He always carried his camera, capturing many moments in the airline's history. Why the decision to write the book? "I was afraid the history of Frontier would get away - that's why I started the project. I am also a pack rat - and I have saved a lot of material through the years. "I am overwhelmed at times. Pulling all the information together is a difficult job. But it is so important to me for the history of the company to be preserved - especially so our employees will know the heritage of the airline." Completion of Contrails Over The Old Trails is several months away. For Frontier employees, the book will provide an interesting look at an exciting period in aviation history, from the eyes of a master storyteller. - FL NEWS, June 1981 ASU is the archival depository for most of the stuff on Arizona Airways. Ed Gerhardt did a lot of research (and lived a lot of it himself as a longtime Frontier employee). Ed died a few months ago. He gave most of his research to ASU sometime back. At one time Ryland charged Ed with the task of writing the history on Frontier. Shortly afterwards Ryland almost singlehandedly killed the airline with his desire to rid the company of unions. About this time, Ed was instructed to drop the project. -Billy Walker (1/19/99) I was sorry to hear the news on Ed Gerhart passing away recently. I went through many school years from an early elementary grade through high school graduation with his son Chuck and was very familiar with Ed's work at Frontier. A few years after high school graduation, Chuck died in an auto accident in eastern Colorado and I heard Ed took this very hard and never was the same person after this event. -Bill Buse (1/19/99) Ed H. Gerhardt V.P. Public Relations Died March 7, 1998, Aurora, CO. Born Jun 6, 1916 Date of hire at Challenger Mar 3, 1947 -Ken Schultz (4/24/99) EDWARD GERHARDT Born 03 Jun 1916 Died 07 Mar 1998 Age 81 At 80014 (Aurora, Arapahoe, CO) SSN issued in Michigan -Social Security Death Index (3/18/02) Email to Ken Schultz: Thanks so much for the latest packet of FL info you sent. It's just wonderful stuff. I can never re-pay you for your kindness and gerosity. Did Gerhardt ever publish his FL history? -Jake Lamkins (1/22/07) The research that Ed Gerhardt did was never published because things started to slide in 1981 so the whole project was terminated. Ed was told to take the materials home. After Hank Lund became President, stores sent a truck out to his house and brought all of the materials back to the hangar where they were stored in an area where all departments stored records. I noticed that items started to disappear and contacted the public relations department and suggested that the research/records be given to the Denver Public Library - Western History Department, since Ray Wilson had given all of his papers to them. In March 1986 Frontier donated all of the materials to DPL - WH, where they are now located and may be accessed and researched as the Frontier Airlines Collection. -Ken Schultz (1/27/08) Ken (Schultz) Thanks do much for the scrapbook. Its fun to relive the early days. Ed was a good friend. First got to know him when he was DSM in PHX and I was mgr at FLG (‘51-52). Later when we were based in DEN had an occasion to make several sales trips with him. Also fished together a couple of times. He was an avid fisherman (he talked to them when they were hooked!) His wife Virgil was a real nice gal with a great Alabama accent. Thanks, again -Bill Monday (3/7/09) FLacebook - FL Club FLight West: Ed Gerhardt DEN vp-public relations Ed Gerhardt's memorial webpage has been updated: http://FAL-1.tripod.com/Ed_Gerhardt.html Eight items added and webpage updated. Still need an obituary for Ed. It's a real shame he never finished his history of Frontier. The Jun 1981 FL News article says he just retired so it would have been around his 65th birthday. The 1990 CAHD citation errs in saying he retired in 1979 and I do not know about his work with Pioneer Airlines. -Jake Lamkins (2/9/16)