After residents had the opportunity to explain why the Bishop Airport should be changed to the Bishop-Dave McCoy Airport at Monday’s Bishop City Council meeting, one thing is crystal clear.
McCoy gave a lot of himself to the Eastern Sierra, above and beyond Mammoth Mountain.
Led by Randy Short, nearly a dozen Bishop residents strongly supported the name change, citing the contributions McCoy made to the community. In answer to objections of naming a public facility after a private person, Short cited the Charles Schultz Airport in Santa Rosa.
According to McCoy’s daughter, Penny, her father “manufactured fun… he made the hard parts
of his life the good parts of others.” He created opportunities, explained Randy Gillespie. “I
came here to go skiing and never left.” Craig London said he learned about life and how to treat
others from McCoy. Other accolades: He treated you like you were important. Dave is one in a
million. One speaker, who may not have been aware of the impact of the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power employees in the Valley, implied Bishop would be nothing
without Mammoth. That didn’t help the dialogue.
Despite those contributions and McCoy’s involvement with Bishop High School and Cerro Coso
Community College, Millpond Park, the Bishop High School ski team, his name is equated with
Mammoth Mountain. That seemed to be the issue expressed by Bishop Councilmembers. Chair
Karen Schwartz acknowledged that McCoy was a “great economic engine” for the area but was
concerned about the cost of a name change. In response, Short said he would fund whatever
the cost of a name change would be.
In the end, the Council preferred “Bishop Airport,” but Chair Karen Schwartz asked staff to
check on the cost of a name change. Councilmembers Jim Ellis and Karen Kong were open to
recognizing McCoy’s contribution in other ways, like the new terminal.
“I see your points,” Ellis said. “What’s come out of this is we need to do something to keep our
history alive.” He suggested a kiosk explaining the history of the region. “History slips away as
people die,” he said. “I see us controlling our history.” He suggested the airport could become a
focal point to teach the “history of who we are. We’re all part of one eco-system—not
Mammoth versus Bishop—we’re one area.”
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Wow! What a bunch of entitled privileged white folks!
If you want a master-class in privilege and entitlement, look no further than this meeting. “The valley was nothing before Dave McCoy”. “He single-handedly built everything”. “He built all the schools”. “We need to honor history!”. All in front of tribal council members who I can only imagine were appalled by the erasure of their contributions to history in the area.
I mean, at one point the entitled guy who “was told he could do a presentation” and bullied his way into doing it even said that Dave Mccoy was such a great man that when he sold his business it was the “saddest day in his life”. WOW! JUST WOW! It takes a special level of privilege to depict someone who just sold his business for hundreds of millions of dollars as a victim. These people really are out of touch with today’s residents of the valley: hard-working people who can barely make ends meet and definitely can’t afford housing or a $200 lift ticket — thanks to Mccoy’s legacy.
McCoy is a legend, but the ‘preserving our history‘ dialog is typical colonialist tripe.
Name Mammoth Airport after him. He’s a major reason that area has grown into what it is. Just call it Bishop Airport…because it’s Bishop Airport.
please consider the following regarding airports john Wayne airport is no longer(Orange County), Bob Hope airport is no longer (Burbank) La Guardia is no longer, etc. Over the years, many airports have names associated with famous persons only to have a name change at some time in the future. Mr. McCoy is a perfect example of someone that probably deserves the renaming , but with the infancy of the new air service, now is not the time to make it difficult for visitors to locate the area. Mr. McCoy is a local icon, but now is not the ideal time.
The meeting and subsequent discussion addressed several important factors for the honor, but not is not the time!
Also, Mr. Short has volunteered to pay for the cost of renaming the airport, does that include United Airlines having to reprogram its computer system to accommodate the change?
In my opinion, Mammoth/Yosemite is a more logical choice thanBishop.
Bishop Airport heart of the eastside soul of the sierras
“Bishop Airport” has a nice ring to it.