I met Doc Giffin in the press tent at the 1962 PGA Championship. He was the PGA press secretary, and I was a novice golf reporter for the Trib, and always the last to leave, except for Doc, who, despite long, frenetic days, would stay to be of assistance even to the most junior reporter.

Sixty years later, Doc is known throughout the golf world as warm, gracious and knowledgeable, and as always, helpful. Doc would be the last to say how valuable he was to Arnold Palmer, or how important he was to the image and success of the airport.

The name “Arnold Palmer Regional Airport” brings our area immense goodwill, and for that, we who enjoy and love this community owe this superb gentleman a loud expression of appreciation and gratitude.

One has to hope that he was not removed over a vote to renew a restaurant lease (“Westmoreland commissioners oust airport authority board members over restaurant lease,” Sept. 30, TribLIVE).

John Driscoll

Greensburg

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