![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Grayson-Ardies.jpg\")
Ardies began working for the Commission in 2009, serving\nfirst as the lone 5010 airport inspector and working up through the ranks to\nbecome Deputy Director in January 2019. Ardies has an exemplary reputation for\nhis significant contributions to aviation and aerospace, and for providing\nexcellent service to constituents and citizens in the aviation and aerospace\ncommunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReferring to someone as \u2018indispensable\u2019 should be done with\nthe greatest caution,\u201d advised Victor Bird, Director of Aeronautics. \u201cEvery\nmember of an organization is vital to its success. The person that comes the\nclosest to being indispensable, however, to not only the Aeronautics Commission\nbut the Oklahoma aviation and aerospace community, is Grayson Ardies.\u201d Bird went\non to say there were many talented and hardworking candidates for this award\nacross the United States this year but felt Ardies stood out in his field and\nindustry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ardies has led many complex statewide initiatives and\nprojects including a three-year effort working with the State Legislature to\nprotect military training airspace, a two-year Aviation and Aerospace Economic\nImpact Study published in 2017 concluding that the industry is the second largest\neconomic engine in the state, development at Carlton Landing Airport at Lake\nEufaula through a P3 (private\/public) partnership, and leading the difficult\nand sometimes precarious but necessary five-year process to close Lake Murray\nState Park Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGrayson has consistently provided superior service to the\nOklahoma Aeronautics Commission, the airports we serve, the citizens of\nOklahoma, and NASAO through his listening ability, exceptional project\nmanagement, tact, tenacity, and wisdom. Grayson has earned the respect of his\ncolleagues, elected public officials, and military officials. He is an asset to\nOklahoma, to NASAO, and to the broader aviation and aerospace community, and he\nis very deserving of honor and respect,\u201d concluded Bird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have many talented and dedicated people working for the\ncitizens of the State of Oklahoma, and Grayson Ardies is exemplary of that. We\nare honored that NASAO has chosen Grayson as the recipient of this year\u2019s State\nAviation Distinguished Service Award. He is one of those exceptional\nindividuals that possesses the technical knowledge to understand and oversee\ncomplex projects and the communication skills to explain the infrastructure\ninvestment strategy and the anticipated outcomes. That is critical to garnering\nthe support needed to provide for an exciting aviation and aerospace future for\nOklahoma. Grayson\u2019s work not only inspires the staff at Aeronautics but\naviation agencies across the country,\u201d said Oklahoma Secretary of\nTransportation Tim Gatz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NASAO State Aviation Distinguished Service Award\nrecognizes that the vitality and effectiveness of a state aviation agency\ndirectly reflects the quality of agency personnel. NASAO strives to annually\nidentify staff members that have performed in an exemplary manner and whose\ncontributions will serve as an inspiration to other state aviation agency\npersonnel. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For more than 10 years of state service to the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission, deputy director Grayson Ardies has been recognized with the 2020 State Aviation Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO). This award was established in 1989 to honor State Aviation personnel who have excelled in their service and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oklahoma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16520,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16517\/revisions\/16520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}