Harding Lawrence

Lawrence in 1966, with one of the new Boeing 727s he introduced into the Braniff fleet.

Harding Luther Lawrence (July 15, 1920-February 16, 2002) was the former Executive Vice President of Continental Airlines and then President and Chairman of Braniff International Airways, the Dallas, Texas, based carrier. Lawrence's bold and dramatic accomplishments at both airlines earned him the reputation as not only a maverick of the transportation industry but as one of the last legendary Titans of aviation.^[1] While at Braniff International Airways, Harding Lawrence turned the conservative airline into a progressive and flamboyant carrier known for high fashion flight attendant uniforms, exemplary inflight service, and brightly painted planes. Lawrence was revolutionary in that he approved the End of the Plain Plane Campaign in 1965, which called for imaginative aircraft paint schemes, interiors, and never before seen passenger service comforts. Prior to this, airlines were often patterned after military operations and were less than appealing.^[2]

Early Years

Harding Lawrence grew up in Gladewater, Texas. His father, Muncey Luther Lawrence (November 15, 1988-March 12,1954) was a school teacher and a Christian Church minister in Perkins, Oklahoma and Gladewater. His mother, Helen Beatrice Langley Lawrence (December 6, 1897-November 23, 1968) managed the Gladwater Hotel. Mr. Lawrence was very close to both of his parents and looked after them throughout their lives. Even with Lawrence's great success it was beyond his ability to get his Mother to retire and move into a new luxurious home he had built for her in Dallas. She operated the hotel until her death in the late 1960s.^[2]

Education and Military Service

Lawrence attended Gladwater High School, graduating two years early, but with a less than a stellar academic record. He then attended Kilgore Junior College where his grades earned him membership in an academic honors group. He then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1942. He entered the US Army Air Corps for two years during World War II, training with the RAAF in Dallas, Texas and Toronto, Canada, and with LAAF at Sheppard Field and Bryan, Texas. He served in Toronto, Canada and at LAAF Base Unit in Lemoore, California.^[2]

Harding Lawrence married Jimmie Bland George of Greenville, Texas, in 1942. They had three sons and one daughter during their marriage. The couple divorced in 1966.^[2]

Dallas Aviation School

Lawrence had planned to attend the University of Texas at Austin but instead was hired by Dallas Aviation School in 1940 where he became Director of Flying at the school. He did attend UT Austin at a later date and graduated in 1942.^[3] A flight school in Terrell, Texas, hired Lawrence in 1942. World War II had just broken out and the civilian school had procured a US Government contract to train British pilots.^[2]

Lawrence's duties included that of Link Trainer instructor. His abilities were quickly noticed, and he was elevated into a number of high positions eventually being placed in charge of the school's maintenance department; he remained with the school until 1944, and then spent two years on active duty with the US Air Force.^[2]

Essair and Pioneer Airlines

After his release from the military, a flight school administrator from Terrell, Texas offered him a job in 1946 with a small commuter carrier based in Houston, Texas, Essair Airways. Essair would eventually become Pioneer Airlines and then merge with Continental Airlines on April 1, 1955.^[2] While in Houston, Lawrence attended South Texas College of Law and received his LLB in 1949. He attended school at night while working at Pioneer during the day.^[2]

Continental Airlines

The merger with Continental put Lawrence directly under the mentoring of Continental founder and President Robert Six. the CEO of Continental for 45 years from 1936 until 1981. Under his tutelage. Lawrence honed his airline administration skills. Six was quoted as saying "one of the biggest reasons we merged with Pioneer was to get Harding." Lawrence, at the time of the merger in 1955, was made Continental's Vice President of Traffic. He was quickly elevated to Executive Vice President in 1958 remaining in this position until 1965, when he became President of Braniff International. During his ten year tenure at Continental the airline grew by 500 percent.^[4]

Braniff International Airways

In early 1965, Lawrence was seen throughout the Braniff International operation at Dallas Love Field. He had pen and paper in hand and appeared to be watching the bustling Braniff schedule with a keen intensity and specific interest, writing down everything that he saw. Everyone wondered who this was and what was his interest in Braniff.^[2]

Braniff employees would soon find out he was their new President, hired by insurance magnate Troy V. Post, Chairman of Greatamerica Corporation, to turn Braniff into a world class global airline. Braniff co-founder Thomas Elmer Braniff was an insurance magnate and now the third major owner (Senator William A. Blakley was the second largest owner of Braniff after 1954) of Braniff was also an insurance executive.^[2] Lawrence engineered a remarkable airline overhaul during his 16 years with Braniff International Airways. He retired on January 31, 1980, after a long battle to save Braniff from the throes of deregulation combined with a national economic downturn and unprecedented rises in fuel costs.^[5]

During his first month Braniff Lawrence executed an order for 12 new Boeing 727 aircraft, The order for these aircraft had already been selected before his arrival but had not been acted upon. These airplanes were the C model with a large freight loading door at the front of the aircraft, which allowed Braniff to begin late night cargo service while during the day regular passenger service was operated with the aircraft, doubling the 727 utilization rate and allowed Braniff to open a new cargo business that was called AirGo. The new 727s could also be outfitted in a cargo/passenger configuration, if needed.

The 727 would become the backbone of the Braniff Fleet and the key aircraft in its 1971 Fleet Standardization Plan that called for only three aircraft types: Boeing 727 on domestic service, 747 for Hawaii, and DC-8 for South America. When Lawrence took office in May, 1965, Braniff operated thirteen different aircraft types. Lawrence also increased daily utilization of its aircraft that allowed Braniff to fly as though it had added aircraft to the fleet.

Throughout Lawrence's tenure Braniff achieved record revenues, profits and traffic as detailed in month after month of Braniff B Liner Employee Newsletters.^[6] Under Lawrence's Administration Braniff revenues grew from 100 million USD in 1965 to over 1.5 billion USD in 1980 and nearly doubled its passenger market share. Even during 1980 Braniff continued to set record traffic levels and revenues. Lawrence was bold with his management of Braniff even attempting to take over the many times larger Pan American World Airways, Inc. in the early 1970s which would have served the dual purpose instantly making Braniff a worldwide air carrier and Pan Am would finally have access to a United States domestic multi feed system. Pan Am's Chairman Najeeb Halaby, unfortunately, nixed the idea preferring to pursue a merger with international competitor Trans World Airlines.^[7][2]

Board Memberships

• First National Bank of Dallas, Board Member
• Dallas Council on World Affairs, Board Member
• Air Traffic Conference of America, President, 1950, organization of the traffic and sales officials of nation's 23 scheduled airlines
• Pioneer Airlines, Board Member, beginning 1949
• Braniff Airways, Inc., Board Member, Board Chairman
• Braniff International Corporation, Board Chairman
• Cessna Aircraft Corporation, Board Member
• Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc., Board Member
• Norton Simon, Inc., Board Member
• King Resources Company, Board Member
• Dallas Council on World Affairs, Board Member
• Dallas County United Fund, Board Member
• Dallas Grand Opera Association, Board Member
• Travel Program for Foreign Diplomats, Board Member
• Pan American Society of the US, Inc., Board Member
• Council for Latin America, Trustee
• Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity, Member
• Airlift Committee, National Defense Transportation Association, Member
• Advisory Council, University of Texas Business Administration Foundation, Member

Honors

• Order of Balboa, 1967, awarded by the President of Panama
• Title of Commander, Order of Bernardo O'Higgins, March 21, 1968, Santiago, Chile, awarded by the Government of Chile, highest civilian honor
• Order of the Sun, Peru's highest civilian decoration
• Gold Key Award, 1970, awarded by the Avenue of America's, other recipients are General Sarnoff and Nelson Rockefeller
• Distinguished Alumnus Award, awarded by the University of Texas, other recipients include Dr. Denton Cooley
• Travel Digest concluded that Harding Lawrence contributed the furthering of unity and understanding for the people's of the Western Hemisphere and for the development of Inter American Trade and Tourism
• America's Award, 1978, awarded by America's Foundation for his innovative ideas unstinting labors in the development of trade and travel between the America's which has brought about a closer cultural interchange and fostered friendship and understanding among the nation's and people's of this hemisphere
• Honorary LLD Degree, 1968, University of Portland in Oregon
• Honorary Juris Doctorate, 1972, South Texas College of Law
• Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Texas, 1966
• Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement, 1965

Retirement and Final Years

In retirement Lawrence consulted for Pan Am at the request of his former associate C. Edward Acker in the early 1980s. (Ed Acker was Executive Vice President and President of Braniff from 1965 until 1975 and became Chairman of Pan Am in 1981.) During the 1980s, Lawrence worked at Wells Rich Greene Advertising alongside his wife, advertising legend Mary Wells Lawrence who Lawrence married in November, 1967. Mary Wells Lawrence sold her advertising firm Wells Rich Greene in 1990. The Lawrence's enjoyed retirement throughout the 1990s and bought and sold real estate as a side line.^[8]

On September 22, 2001, Lawrence was asked to come back to his hometown of Perkins, Oklahoma, to act as Grand Marshall of the annual Old Settler's Fall Harvest. The theme for the 2001 Harvest was "Pioneers of Transportation" with Mr. Lawrence as the honored guest of the event. The Perkins City Commission declared the Saturday event as "Harding L. Lawrence Day" and recognized Lawrence for his contributions to the airline industry.^[9]

Lawrence was accompanied to the Festival by his wife Mary Wells Lawrence, Mrs. Henry (Kathleen) Ford II, Ed and Sandy Acker, Jere Cox, and over 40 other family members and Braniff associates.^[9] Perkins Mayor Twila Longon presented Mr. Lawrence with a proclamation plaque approved by the City Commission declaring September 22, 2001, as Harding L. Lawrence Day.^[10] Lawrence was also inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame at the Omniplex at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that Saturday, September 22, 2001, the evening after the festivities in Perkins. Ed Acker presented the induction medal to Mr. Lawrence and placed it around his neck officially inducting Mr. Lawrence into the Hall of Fame. He was honored with a video history of his amazing career followed by the induction. Lawrence the presented a speech about the state of the airline industry of nearly thirty minutes and spoke with no notes or aids. This would be his final public speech and was given a standing ovation at the conclusion.^[11]

Harding Luther Lawrence died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Mustique, St. Vincent, West Indies. at the age of 81 on January 16, 2002. He was preceded in death by a son Harding L. Lawrence, Jr, in 1945, and survived by his wife Mary Wells Lawrence, a son State R. Lawrence of Greenwich, Connecticut, another son James B. Lawrence of Mystic, Connecticut and three daughters Deborah M. Lawrence of New York City, NY, Kathy Bryan of Red Bank, New Jersey and Pamela Lombard of Geneva, Switzerland. At the time of his death Mr. Lawrence was the grandfather of seven grandchildren.^[12][13][14]

References

External links

• Braniff Flying Colors Collection and Historical Page
• Harding Lawrence at Find a Grave Harding Lawrence
• Harding Lawrence at Find a Grave Harding L. Lawrence, Jr.