Hank Coe

The terminal at Yellowstone Regional Airport will soon be named in honor of one of its champions, the late Sen. Hank Coe.

On June 15, the Cody City Council voted unanimously to name the terminal in tribute to Coe, a longtime state lawmaker and advocate for commercial air service.

When it came to Wyoming’s airports, Coe “was just instrumental in a way that I think no one else in Wyoming has ever been,” said Bruce McCormack, a Wyoming Aeronautics commissioner from Cody.

“Any of the nine commercial airports in Wyoming could name something after Hank [Coe] and it would not be inappropriate,” McCormack said. “He helped all the airports for so long.”

Coe served on the Yellowstone Regional Airport board for decades and was heavily involved in aeronautics during his 32 years in the Wyoming Senate. That included serving on air service-related committees from 2002 through his retirement at the start of this year.

Back in the 1980s, when Coe chaired the YRA board, “he just really began to lift this airport,” McCormack recalled. He helped push for improvements to the runways, taxiways, lights, fences, terminal, security, snowplows, pavement and other projects, McCormack recalled.

In addition, Coe built relationships with airlines “to get larger airplanes, then to get jets, then to get nonstop service, then to get daily service, then to get year-round service,” McCormack said. “He just worked on that relentlessly over those years.”

Meanwhile, in the Legislature, Coe helped create a first-of-its-kind air service enhancement program that guarantees the airlines a minimum amount of revenue to entice them to fly to Wyoming’s small airports.

“It seems rather automatic now,” McCormack said of the program, but “in the day, it was pretty revolutionary and Hank just led the way on that. … It passed, it worked.”

Coe died in January at the age of 74 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Since then, local and state leaders have pondered how best to honor him.

The Wyoming Legislature came close to passing a bill that would have named a section of Wyo. Highway 120 after Coe as the route passes through Cody, but ultimately rejected it over concerns about what precedent the naming might set. That led to the discussion about renaming the terminal.

Coe’s son, H.R. Coe, strongly endorsed the idea at the council meeting, saying the measure would mean a lot to the family.

“Honestly, after thinking about this, I think this is much more appropriate. I think my dad would be even more honored for this than 120 south, because he did work so hard for YRA for so long and it was his passion,” H.R. Coe said. “I saw it firsthand — I know how mad he would get at me if I told him I was flying out of Billings.”

Park County commissioners threw their support behind the proposal as well.

“Hank Coe did more for commercial aviation in the state of Wyoming than any other individual that I know of,” Commissioner Joe Tilden told the council, “and we believe it would be very appropriate to name the terminal after him.”

It will be up to the City of Cody and airport board to design the plaque, with the cost covered by private donors.

Tilden, who is leading the fundraising effort, said quite a bit of money has already been pledged.

“So as far as the money’s concerned, you tell us what you want, we’ll get it done,” he said.

Cody Mayor Matt Hall noted Coe’s distinguished career, his community leadership and the benefits he helped bring to the state and the local area through commercial air service. Naming the Cody airport in his honor, Hall said, “is quite fitting.”