Boyer To Retire from AOPA’s Left Seat

By Paul Lowe

July 1, 2008
General Aviation, People

Phil Boyer, the former broadcast executive who guided AOPA through some of its most turbulent times, announced yesterday that he will step down as AOPA president at the end of this year. He will be succeeded by Craig Fuller, a former White House aide under two presidents and currently executive v-p at the international lobbying shop APCO Worldwide.

Boyer took control of what is now a 415,000-member AOPA in 1991 when general aviation was suffocating under oppressive product liability laws that stifled its growth, helping to engineer passage of the General Aviation Revitalization Act in 1994, which resurrected the nearly dormant piston aircraft industry. He was also an enthusiastic early supporter of civilian use of GPS and its offspring WAAS and ADS-B, which are building blocks for the next-generation ATC system.

Fuller, a pilot for 40 years, left his native California in 1981 to be President Reagan’s assistant for Cabinet Affairs. Four years later he became chief of staff for then Vice President George H.W. Bush, traveling with him to every state and 60 nations overseas.

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