Fritz Kass has worn many hats during his lifetime, but today, he”™s got on one of his favorites: the baseball cap he wore during the Stewart Air Shows. While those shows no longer go on, Kass is an avowed aviation addict.
He was among the crowd at the Stewart International Airport Commission”™s final meeting with National Express Group Oct. 16, saying goodbye to another era in the airport”™s history and welcoming a new chapter, as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey readies to take over management of Archie Stewart”™s field of dreams Oct. 31.
Kass was instrumental in getting the original Stewart Air Show off the ground. That was back in the day when the Navy Vietnam veteran was running Lafayette Stores, a forerunner to today”™s Radio Shack. His 12 Hudson Valley stores catered to the TV and radio trade, says Katz, who claims among his many customers Allan Gerry, who was just starting out in the cable TV business. (Today, billionaire Gerry no longer tinkers with cable. His cable industry eventually brought him fame and fortune, and Forbes ranks him on its list of the 500 richest people in America; these days, Gerry is busy with his new venture, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Liberty.)
While Kass sold off the electronics supply business, he held onto his real estate holdings and built up the New Windsor Mall on Route 32. But he stayed involved in the radio medium through college radio broadcasting “for what seems like forever,” laughs Kass. He”™s an active member of Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS), acting as its chief operating officer. IBS boasts a membership of 1,000 college ratio stations nationwide. “I guess radio is in my blood ”¦ I”™ve been involved since I was a freshman at Lehigh University back in 1961,” says the man of many hats. The Web site is www.collegeradio.tv.
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Kass joined the Navy after graduation and did three tours in Vietnam. “Once I left active duty, I stayed in the Reserves but was called back to active duty during the Persian Gulf War in 1990.” Â Kass served as chief of planning operations, finally retiring from military service as a Navy captain.
He likes what new U.S. Rep. John Hall and peers are doing for the nation”™s vets. “Hall”™s doing a wonderful job for the Veterans Administration (the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) and I like the way Congress is trying to get the VA to handle the backlog of claims. He”™s right ”“ they should handle claims the way the IRS handles returns; process the claim and then if something”™s amiss, do an audit. It”™s a lot easier on the veterans and their families. They have enough to contend with after coming back from combat into civilian life.”
Kass, who taught flight school both in college and while stationed on Guam in the equatorial Pacific, was director of aviation at Orange County airport, where he says the “secret of aviation success is making people happy.”
After he retired and went on to build the New Windsor Mall in 1982, Kass continued to keep his love of flight soaring. He acts as a mentor to youths who take part in the nonprofit Experimental Aircraft Association, which meets once a month at the airport, and its Young Eagles program that takes children age 8 through 17 on flights to encourage them to take an interest in the field of aviation. Actor Harrison Ford, another aviation buff, is the organization”™s national director.
Kass shares the excitement of Stewart “finally becoming an economic engine for the Hudson Valley. It will be great for our community and bring good jobs to the area. Four percent of our nation”™s economy comes from the aviation industry and now the potential is right here in our own backyard.”
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