You may know (because Arkansas Business reported it) that Glen Barentine left Hot Springs Memorial Field Airport, where he was manager, to become development manager at the Texarkana Regional Airport.
But you may not know that a successor recently started work at Hot Springs.
He is Don Rowlett, and he brings four decades of aviation experience, most recently as air traffic manager for the privately contracted control tower at Ocala International Airport in Florida.
Rowlett started his career as an air traffic controller in the U.S. Army, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has a bachelor’s degree in professional aeronautics and a master’s in aeronautical science, both from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
“This is my first opportunity as an airport manager,” Rowlett told Whispers, although he has been an operations manager in the past.
He saw the job opening posted and applied for it having never visited Hot Springs. But he had spent time in Arkansas before, including at Fort Chaffee with the National Guard back in the 1990s, “and what I’d seen of it, I liked it.”
The airport he has inherited is in generally good working order, he said. “The traffic and the personnel at the airport are fine,” Rowlett said. But he is working on plans to address some pent-up maintenance on the terminal and hangars, and to make the airport a better reflection on Hot Springs.
“A lot of time the airport is the gateway to the community. … It kind of sets the tone for their business. I want to improve that.”
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