Henry Kuitu, 96, longtime Twin Cities airport chief

The Cloquet native was head of the MAC when air traffic was up and the push was on for another airport.

By BEN COHEN, Star Tribune

Last update: January 13, 2008 - 7:57 PM

Henry Kuitu, who served as executive director of the Metropolitan Airports Commission from 1960 to 1976, died at his Inver Grove Heights home on Jan. 2.

Kuitu, who grew up in Cloquet and lived in St. Paul for many years, was 96.

He was at the controls of the MAC when many believed that the Twin Cities should be planning a second main airport farther from the urban center and when air traffic was growing by leaps and bounds.

Then as now, airport noise was in the news.

"After investigation of all potential airport sites in the area, the MAC staff has recommended acquisitions of 15,000 to 20,000 acres of land identified as the Ham Lake Site," Kuitu wrote in 1969 for an industry magazine. He said the site for a second airport was a good one in terms of air safety, closeness to population centers and "especially as regards aircraft noise."

By 1973, noise and air-traffic problems were no longer considered urgent.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport "is one of the finest airports in the world" and should continue to serve all kinds of aircraft, Kuitu said in the Feb. 2, 1973, Minneapolis Star.

Next he turned his attention to making improvements at the Twin Cities airport.

During his career, he led the renegotiation of airline agreements that made it possible to eliminate the airport tax levy for property taxpayers of Minneapolis and St. Paul, said his daughter-in-law, Linda Kuitu of North Oaks.

What he didn't like about his work, Kuitu told his family, were interest groups bearing gifts and the "politics" of the job.

He would tell his family that "growing up in Cloquet is for the hard core," especially since he grew up there during the Great Depression, said his daughter-in law. "He was a very low-key, conservative hard worker."

After high school in Cloquet, he earned a degree in architectural engineering in 1933. For a few years, he worked in civil engineering.

From 1941 to 1953, he was an engineer for the Civil Aeronautics Administrations, the forerunner of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Next, he worked for the airports commission for seven years, rising to the top job in 1960, when he became responsible for a half dozen airports.

Kuitu retired in 1976. He was a hunter and a fisherman who spent many seasons at his family deer camp near Cook, and fishing on Lake Mille Lacs.

His wife of 68 years, Margaret, died in 2007. He is survived by his son, James of North Oaks; two grandsons, and two great-grandsons.

Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 25 at the Handevidt Funeral Home, 900 Washington Av., Cloquet.

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