JFK Airport Business Leader and Airport Icon Passes Away

The JFK Airport community mourns the loss of Bill Puckhaber, a respected and important figure in the New York aviation community.

Bill Puckhaber, founder, and CEO of Pan American Training Institute and Publisher of the Airport Press, passed away in Somers, NY, with his family around him on Sunday, October 1st, 2017.

Bill was a native Brooklynite, attended St. Johns University, where he achieved academic honors, and was inducted into the Who’s Who of American Students. After college, Bill entered the US Army and served stateside and in Europe. Upon his return to civilian life, he decided to embark on an aviation career and was hired by Pan American World Airways. His career with Pan Am was successful, moving up the ladder to Station Manager postings at Roberts Field in Africa, the air hub of the African continent, and at Taipei Airport in Taiwan. He was then brought back to the states and was promoted to President of Pan Am World Services, the subsidiary of the airline that ran airports.

When Pan Am went bankrupt in 1991, Bill was determined to stay in aviation and founded an aviation school headquartered at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Pan American Training Institute, and took over a newspaper named Airport Press that he grew from an obscure publication to one serving the entire metropolitan New York airport complex.

Bill was a welcome figure around JFK and New York area airports and took on important jobs within the airport community. He served as President of the JFK Chamber of Commerce, and officer in The Semantics, who honored him with the man of the year honors, and was deeply involved in all the organizations that dealt with the airport’s cargo and business affiliations. Bill was an instrumental part of bringing the Aviation High Schools campus into JFK Airport and was an active supporter of Vaughn College.

His work with the religious community was the thing that gave him the most satisfaction, and he was honored as Catholic Man of the Year by Our Lady of the Skies chapel; and he could be considered the driving force behind the success of the Notre Dame Sisters School for women in Jamaica.

Bill leaves his wife, Stephanie, and children, Stephen, Bill Jr., Jennifer Gregory, and her husband, Michael. He enjoyed being a grandfather to Hollie, Jack, and Maddie. Bill was a brother of Ruth Smith, Larry, Robert, and Frank. He is survived by many nieces and nephews.