L-R: Ray Kendrick, vice chair of the Broward College
Foundation; J. David Armstrong Jr., Broward College
president; George Weaver, member Emil Buehler
Perpetual Trust Board of Directors; Sean Guerin,
chair of the Broward College District Board of Trustees,
and Miramar Mayor Lori Cohen Moseley. Mr. Weaver
holds a plaque honoring Emil Buehler’s support
for Broward College.
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Student controllers were on hand at the dedication
ceremonies to demonstrate the radar and tower simulators.
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Just over a year ago, the airy, wing-shaped room in Broward College’s new Miramar Town Center building was empty. Now it holds the Emil Buehler Air Traffic Control Simulation Laboratory and a million dollars’ worth of high-tech equipment. It bustles with activity as students prepare for careers in the high-demand field of air traffic control.
On October 19, the laboratory was dedicated, and a permanent plaque honoring its namesake – German aviator architect and businessman Emil Buehler – was hung on the wall in the ATC lab.
“For more than 20 years, the Emil Buehler Perpetual Trust has supported Broward College by providing student scholarships and internships, construction and equipment support for the Buehler Planetarium, faculty recognition through the Buehler Endowed Teaching Chair and flight simulators for the Aviation Institute,” said Ray Kendrick, vice chair of the Broward College Foundation Board of Directors. “Once again, the Buehler Perpetual Trust has stepped up to the plate to assist the college in making an aviation-related program – the air traffic control program – a reality.”
George Weaver, a longtime member of the Buehler Trust, toured the new facility and said he was most favorably impressed.
“I see a lot of care here,” he said. “The tower simulator absolutely blew me away. Emil would have absolutely loved this.”
L-R: Broward Foundation Vice Chair Ray Kendrick,
BCF Executive Director Nancy Botero and George
Weaver, longtime member of the Emil Buehler
Perpetual Trust’s board of directors. | 
Dr. Lourdes Oroza, provost of the Judson A. Samuels
South Campus, welcomes guests to the dedication
ceremonies.
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The need for air traffic controllers provided another opportunity for the college to serve the community, said Jan Shakespeare, associate dean for aviation operations. Response, she said, was swift.
“When we started our first class here, we had 24 students,” she said. “Now we have 158.”
The need for air traffic controllers is particularly acute, and will remain so for at least the next decade, said Sean Guerin, chair of the Broward College District Board of Trustees.
“The air traffic control program based here in Miramar illustrates how effectively the college responds to the need for an educated workforce,” he said. “We have roughly 18,000 air traffic controllers retiring in the next decade.”
“Some of the members of our first class will be graduating from the program in December; most will graduate in May,” said Broward College President J. David Armstrong, Jr. “It is our goal to graduate 50 students from the program each year. If current enrollment is any indicator, we will not only make our goal, but exceed it.
“This program is the perfect example of the commitment to meeting industry’s need for an educated workforce, consistent with the original mission of why community colleges were created through our country,” Armstrong said.
Jorge Guerra, dean of the Aviation Institute, said the controllers trained at Broward and the other 21 CTI centers around the nation play a vital role in assuring the safety of the aviation industry.
“The FAA operates 314 air traffic control facilities and command centers in the United States and they will all need trained and qualified controllers to fill the demand, making this initiative a national priority,” Guerra said. “We all fly, either on business or pleasure and our expectation is that we will arrive at our destination safely. The training provided here is critical for our skies to be safe and the public to have confidence in flying throughout the world.”
George Weaver, a member of the Emil Buehler
Perpetual Trust Board of Directors, listens on in
the tower simulation area . “Emil would have
absolutely loved this,” he said. | 
George Weaver and Dean Jorge Guerra place the
plaque honoring Emil Buehler on the wall at the
Emil Buehler Air Traffic Control Simulation Laboratory. |
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