Meaford airport’s new name recognizes a local war hero.
by by Dianne Rinehart // photo by Roger Klein
Eighty years ago, Maj.-Gen. Richard Rohmer made a name for himself as a hero during the D-Day invasion, when he spotted the motorcade of Germany’s most successful commander, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, from the air in his P-51 Mustang and radioed his location to Group Control on July 14, 1944.
That call took the commander out of action.
Now the major-general, who has made Collingwood his home, is the inspiration for the renaming of the airport in Meaford. The former Owen Sound Billy Bishop Regional Airport is now the Major-General Richard Rohmer Meaford International Airport.
“He’s a living legacy and he deserves to have an airport named after him,” said Rick Horwath, who purchased the airport in December 2023 with plans to expand and revitalize the facility.
The airport had at one time been owned by the City of Owen Sound, and was named Billy Bishop to honour the First World War ace who grew up there. But the new name clarifies the airport’s location, in Meaford, along with any confusion with the busier Toronto island airport, which also took on the Billy Bishop name in 2009.
Rohmer was feted at the renaming ceremony in September, as a P-51 Mustang, like the one he flew in 80 years ago, roared overhead.
“I’m quite happy to have my name associated with this airport because it has nothing but opportunity to grow and I’d like my name to grow with it,” Rohmer told the crowd.
Though he is 100 years old, Rohmer has not let age slow him down. Last June he attended the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, along with 12 other Canadian veterans in military uniform who survived that bloody battle, which turned the tide in the Second World War in favour of the Allies.
At the celebration, he shook the hand of Prince William, the Prince of Wales, as the former prime minister of France, Gabriel Attal, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looked on. Maj.-Gen. Rohmer noted that this would likely be his last D-Day anniversary visit to France, since they only occur every 10 years.
“There won’t be any others to follow, because we’re running out of people,” Rohmer told The Canadian Press at that time.
But the renaming of an airport is a step to ensure that one of those people, and the heroism of many Allies who fought with him, will never be forgotten.
