Those of you who read Southwest’s blog might be familiar with my favorite series, Flashback Fridays. Each week, Brian Lusk, corporate historian and longtime airline dork dug into Southwest’s history and pulled out some fascinating photos and tales. Unfortunately, Brian died yesterday, just barely into his 60s. Fittingly, it’s Friday today, so I thought it was worth doing a different kind of Flashback Friday, the kind you never want to do.
That picture above shows the day I met Brian, at the BlogWorld Expo on November 8, 2007. That’s him and former Southwest social media queen Paula Berg manning the booth. We talked a lot about the industry, as airline dorks do when they get together, and it was just the first of several times we were able to meet over the years.
Brian and I shared a love of LA aviation history, and I was fortunate enough to swap stories with him over a Double Double at the In ‘n Out near LAX. Though he was at Southwest for nearly two decades, he spent about the same amount of time working for Delta before that. And his father was an airline guy as well, so Brian lived through some incredible times in the industry.
So instead of having a regular “topic of the week” this week, take a little time to appreciate Brian’s work. You can thumb through some past Flashback Fridays and you’ll see how great he was at making history come to life. Fridays just won’t be the same without him.
