Port Columbus International Airport may soon have a new name that honors one of the most distinguished Ohioans of a generation.According to a report from the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger is pushing an effort at the Statehouse to rename the airport to John Glenn International Airport.
Glenn, 94, is a former Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, and Ohio senator.
The newspaper says Rosenberger discussed the matter with Mayor Andrew Ginther, who is reportedly “on board.” However, an airport spokesman says told the Dispatch it has not been informed of a name change and the matter has not been discussed.
The name change would reportedly be attached to a license plate bill expected to pass this week.
Port Columbus Airport opened in 1929 as a stop on the first transcontinental air/rail service from New York to the West coast. Following the establishment of a U.S. Customs facility, the airport added "International" to the name in 1965.
It recently underwent an $80 million upgrade, including modern updates to the ticket lobby, baggage claim and Concourses A, B and C as well as extensive mechanical, technological and security upgrades
A military pilot, Glenn was selected in 1959 for Project Mercury astronaut training. He became a backup pilot for Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Virgil I. Grissom, who made the first two U.S. suborbital flights into space. Glenn was selected for the first orbital flight, and in 1962, aboard Friendship 7, he made three orbits around Earth.
Later, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974. A Democrat, he served four terms in Congress.
In 2012, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama