Decrease font Decrease font
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font
Enlarge font Enlarge font

Thunderbird to restore historic airfield tower

Thunderbird School of Global Management will start work in January to restore an aging air traffic control tower at the heart of campus that helped American, British and Chinese pilots train during World War II.

Thunderbird Tower, which closed in January 2006 because of structural damage, will get a second life in 2010 thanks to a student-led grassroots campaign and major pledge from Thunderbird Trustee Merle A. Hinrichs and his wife, Miriam.

“The tower represents a significant icon of Thunderbird's history,” said Merle Hinrichs, a 1965 Thunderbird graduate and chairman of Global Sources, a Hong Kong-based business-to-business media company. “The engagement by students, faculty, staff and alumni in this project is encouraging and exciting.”

A $2 million pledge, which Miriam Hinrichs made this summer in honor of her husband for his 70th birthday in November 2011, gave the restoration project the boost it needed to turn the dreams of many into reality. The pledge follows an initial $100,000 donation that the Hinrichs family gave in February 2008 to help launch the project aptly named “Save the Tower.”

Since then, hundreds of Thunderbird students, faculty, staff and alumni have stepped forward with additional donations totaling more than $110,000. As part of the Hinrichs’ gift, Thunderbird has hired 2009 Thunderbird graduate Will Counts, one of three students who helped launch the campaign, to oversee the project and help raise the remaining $500,000 needed to implement all phases of the project.

Counts said the idea behind the grassroots campaign is to involve as many people as possible in giving the condemned building a second life. “We want everybody to be a part of this building,” Counts said.

Once restored, the building will include a student union, the Thunderbird Pub, ThunderShop and an alumni/veterans gallery. Plans include sustainable building practices that will help the restored building qualify for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.

Thunderbird Tower was built in 1939 and served as the air traffic control tower and officers’ quarters during the operation of the Thunderbird 1 Army Air Field during WWII.

When Thunderbird turned the campus into a graduate business school in 1946, the Tower provided administration and faculty offices. By the late 1950s, the Tower also housed the school’s intensive language learning center. In the 1990s the building was remodeled to include a student lounge, café and offices for Thunderbird Student Government.

To donate or for more information about the project, visit www.thunderbird.edu/tower.

Thunderbird offers a wide range of degree and nondegree programs for companies, working professionals and full-time students, including executive education, traditional and accelerated MBAs in Global Management, Executive MBAs (in the U.S. and Europe), Evening MBA, Global MBA On-Demand, the Global MBA for Latin American Managers, the Master of Science in Global Management and the Master of Arts in Global Affairs and Management.