The staff at Ground Support Worldwide is saddened to learn of Don Redwine's passing at the age of 64.
Don worked in the ground support equipment (GSE) field for decades, most recently serving as Southwest Airline's director of GSE since 2021. In memory of Don, we would like to share the following excerpt from the March 2011 issue of Ground Support Worldwide, in which he was named Safety Leader of the Year.
Don Redwine envisioned a career in aviation at a young age. “On my first flight in the early 1970s, I informed my mother I would be in this business somehow,” he says. “It was just way too cool.” He has since spent 26 years in the industry, which initially began at Horton Aero Service in Lubbock, Texas in 1978 where he was an apprentice A&P for three years. He then worked outside aviation before returning in 1988 as a production painter at E.B.A. in Texas, where he eventually became a production manager building small-scale GSE for corporate and commuter markets. Redwine then took on the position of field service technician when E.B.A was acquired by DevTec. When the company became known as TLD, Redwine led a team of field service technicians that covered North and Central America, as well as English-speaking countries in the Pacific Rim.
Redwine transitioned into an airline career with Southwest in 2005 as a reliability analyst. He has since become involved in many aspects of airline ground safety, sitting in on several internal committees and groups focused on safety and reducing injuries. He has also been involved in the SAE G12 and AGE2 groups and the ANSI A92.7 working group. Redwine also has responsibility for creating and facilitating safety/technical training programs for the Southwest GSE group worldwide.
Introducing him at the reception, Rick Waugh, regional GSE manager at Southwest, says Redwine “does a tremendous job of working with our end users of our equipment.” He adds, “He explains the error in their rationale at times, or gives credit where credit is due when they come up with something that has merit.”
Redwine says, “I owe much of my success to the exceedingly competent group of people I have the pleasure of working with here at Southwest Airlines.”
