James Arnott, the longtime superintendent of Sullivan County International Airport in Bethel, passed away on Jan. 27 at the age of 74 following a bout with pancreatic cancer.
Arnott was born in Middletown on July 12, 1948, and graduated from Monticello High School. He served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and continued his military career for the next 18 years.
“We are saddened to share the passing on Friday of Jim Arnott, administrator of the Sullivan County International Airport,” said the Sullivan County government on its Facebook page. “An accomplished pilot, business owner and author, Jim was well-known and well-regarded for his passion for the County Airport, and for the past five years, he worked very hard to make it an attractive destination not just for general aviation but business and nonprofit flight services.”
In an interview last October with the Business Journals, Arnott detailed how the airport had been upgraded over the past half-dozen years.
“If you go back to 2016, we started with FAA grants to replace the lights, the signs, the electrical vault,” he said. “We did (repaved) the runway two years ago. Last year we did the taxiway. This year, in October, we’re doing the apron to the terminal and now we’re going to have the opportunity to have a really freshened-up terminal and along with that we’ve got a brand new vision for what Sullivan County Airport is.”
Photo courtesy of Sullivan County’s government
