Eastern Iowa Airport terminal named for Don Canney

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CEDAR RAPIDS - CEDAR RAPIDS - Airports are places that create first and lasting impressions of cities, and so a community takes great care in both the little and big changes it makes out where airplanes come and go.

On Wednesday, Cedar Rapids made a giant change at its airport, The Eastern Iowa Airport, when it formally named the airport terminal for the city's longest-serving mayor, Don Canney.

The unveiling of a plaque featuring a portrait of the curly-haired Canney in his prime and the name, Donald J. Canney Airport Terminal, came at a noontime gathering of about 100 people in the terminal lobby.

The airport also revealed the Canney name on the west side of the terminal building and at the terminal's parking-level entrance in a commemoration that came 25 years from the day that the $18-million terminal - with then-Mayor Canney as the driving force behind its construction - opened for the first time.

Canney, who served as the city's streets commissioner for more than six years before his run from 1969 to 1992 as mayor, died in March at age 80 from heart failure.

Two of his sons, Kevin and Mike, attended the naming celebration on Wednesday. Kevin Canney told the crowd that both he and his brother quickly agreed after their father's death that the best place to display his name for posterity was at the airport.

His father believed that the modern terminal and the expansion of the airport 25 years ago would be key to the city's growth - and he was right, Kevin Canney said.

Hal Schaefer, who served as Cedar Rapids' finance commissioner during many of Canney's City Hall years, recalled that it was no easy task to get the new terminal built and to acquire extra land to expand the airport's runways.

“Twenty-five years ago, Don was really the ace of spades to get this terminal going,” Schaefer said.

Kevin Canney recalled his father's persistence and how it took three public votes before local residents agreed to approve the bonds to help pay for the new terminal building and the airport expansion.

Mayor Ron Corbett said his predecessor's love for Cedar Rapids drove him every day to bring about the vision he had for the city.

“He did not believe in the status quo,” Corbett said of Canney. “He was extremely proud of Cedar Rapids, (knew) that we are Iowa's second-largest city, and he wanted us to act that way.

“The landscape of Cedar Rapids is dotted with the fingerprints of Don Canney. And it was that strong hand that moved our community forward.”

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