Alan Bruce Magary

Alan Bruce Magary ObituaryAlan "Sky" Magary Obituary
Published by Legacy Remembers on Sep. 28, 2024.
Flight industry pioneer Alan Bruce "Sky" Magary, 82, died of natural causes at his home in Litchfield, CT, on September 28, 2024. Magary is survived by his wife of 60 years, Susan, along with their three children (Alexander, Amanda, and Andrew) and eight grandchildren.
Magary was nicknamed "Sky" by his mother, Elizabeth Cutter Mayher, shortly after his birth in Elgin, IL on September 20th, 1942. After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy (1959), Yale University (1963), and Harvard Business School (1967), Sky Magary would more than live up to his nickname by embarking on a career that took him from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Pan Am Airways, Hyatt Hotels, and finally Republic/Northwest Airlines.
It was at Northwest where Magary, as Vice President of the airline's marketing department, would implement the first domestic smoking ban that any airline had ever attempted in North America. Despite fierce opposition from the tobacco lobby, the ban proved to be a historic success, with other carriers soon instituting bans of their own and the US government codifying the ban as law in 1990.
Magary also had footrests installed in front of every seat on Northwest flights. Airlines had never been so accommodating to all of their passengers, and perhaps never will be again.
After a change in Northwest's ownership, Magary left the airline in 1991 and retired to Litchfield, CT, with his wife that same year. Save for a brief stint running the United's now-defunct Shuttle service in 1995, Sky Magary would remain in Litchfield for the next 33 years, playing golf (as best he could) and collecting vintage railroad timetables. He was a contented man, and would end his life that way: surrounded by his wife and kids, loved by them forever.
A Celebration Luncheon will be held from 11 am to 2 pm on Saturday, October 26, at the Litchfield Historical Society, 5 South Street, Litchfield, CT.
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Alan "Sky" Magary Obituary
Published by Legacy Remembers on Sep. 28, 2024.
Flight industry pioneer Alan Bruce "Sky" Magary, 82, died of natural causes at his home in Litchfield, CT, on September 28, 2024. Magary is survived by his wife of 60 years, Susan, along with their three children (Alexander, Amanda, and Andrew) and eight grand