If you’ve been following the travel industry for a few years (read: before Covid), you may remember a time when the TSA’s online presence was actually a lot of fun. Since 2008, their Instagram, Twitter feed, and official blog, aptly named TSABlog, were all written by a guy named Curtis Robert Burns, widely known as “Blogger Bob.” He gave all 3 entities personality, with interesting or quirky info and his responses to questions were peppered with some wry humor, puns and a bunch of “dad jokes.”
Blogger Bob passed away, both suddenly and unexpectedly, in October 2018. He was something of an internet superstar, and his death was quite a blow to TSA’s internet presence. Their blog was last updated in 2021, their Insta was last updated six months ago, and although AskTSA lives on, it’s informational but dry and boring. No one could ever fill Blogger Bob’s shoes.
In that vein, there’s now some sad news from two more sectors of the travel industry – another death, as well as a retirement.
Arthur Frommer: July 17, 1929 – November 18, 2024
Arthur Frommer built a travel media empire that included books, magazines, newspaper columns, television and radio. According to his daughter, Pauline Frommer, he passed away this past Monday at the age of 95 from complications following pneumonia.
Frommer’s travel guidebooks have been around since 1957 – so over 65 years.
In 1957, Arthur Frommer was a corporal in the U.S. Army. He wrote a travel guide for American GIs in Europe, and then produced a civilian version called Europe on $5 a Day. The book ranked famous landmarks and sights in order of importance and included suggestions on how to travel around Europe on a budget. It’s said to be the first travel guide that showed Americans they could afford to travel in Europe.
Upon his return to the U.S., Frommer became a lawyer. However, he continued to write and self-publish his guidebooks, expanding to destinations such as New York, Mexico, Hawaii, Japan, and the Caribbean. The collection continued growing when Arthur’s daughter, Pauline, began writing her additions to the series.
From 1977 onward, the Frommer series was sold several times over. Google purchased the rights to the series in 2012, but when they announced in 2013 that they would no longer publish the books, the Frommer family bought the rights back.
Retirement: Jeff Skiles, “Miracle on the Hudson” First Officer
Jeff Skiles has retired from American Airlines, after decades of flying. He’s best known as the first officer on U.S. Airways flight 1549, which landed in the Hudson River in 2009.
Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberg retired from U.S. Airways in 2010. However, Skies continued with U.S. Airways until 2012, when he was named Vice President of Chapters and Youth Organizations for the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles program, which seeks to foster interest in aviation among young people. But a few years later, he was flying commercially again, now for American, since they and US Air merged in 2013. He’s also become a motivational speaker, relating his story about the “Miracle on the Hudson” to crisis management and overcoming adversity in business.
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner captain, Skiles’ final flight was this past Sunday, November 17th; his 65th birthday, the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots, was November 18th.
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