Building 849 renamed for former director

  • Published
  • By Bill Orndorff
  • 309th Maintenance Wing
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  A former director of missiles, electronics, aircraft and distribution at Hill Air Force Base was honored March 19 when Building 849 was renamed Price Hall.

The building, located near the intersection of "F" Avenue and Wardleigh Road, is the headquarters for the 309th Maintenance Wing and contains offices for the Defense Logistics Agency.

The ceremony honors Jack Price who, following six years in the Air Force, began working at Hill AFB in 1953 repairing teletype and telephone equipment. He retired in 1988 as deputy director of Distribution. In his career, he served as director or deputy director of missiles, electronics and aircraft. His last office was in Building 849 where the 309th MXW vice director now works.

"It's a great honor that we dedicate this hall to you and thank you for your years of dedicated service to the Air Force not only up to your retirement, but also certainly after your retirement," said Brig. Gen. John Cooper, 309th MXW commander.

Commenting on Price's career and the work he has done since retirement, Cooper noted that "his fingerprints are all over our Air Force, not only at Hill Air Force Base, but even in Washington, D.C."

Price, now 80, has devoted much of his time to the Air Force Association. He was full-time national president from 1988 to 1990, national chairman of the board from 1990 to 1992, and was named Member of the Year in 1992. Additionally, he was Aerospace Education Foundation chairman of the board from 2000 to 2002, and was a founding trustee for the Air Force Memorial Foundation for the establishment of the Air Force Memorial in Washington, D.C.

As vice chairman of the Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Utah, Price has been instrumental in the design and creation of many of the exhibits and displays in the Hill Aerospace Museum. He was presented with the Hill AFB Community Wingman Award in 2008.

"I quite frankly don't know what to say," Price said with a smile after unveiling his name on the building. "I really sincerely appreciate all of this, and I'm flabbergasted. I'll have to come up here every morning and look at this, and maybe I'll bring people out here to see it."

While other buildings on the base are named for individuals -- Thornton Community Center, Poe Conference Center, Gerrity Memorial Library, to name a few -- Price Hall is the first office building on Hill AFB to be so named.

Completed Aug. 4, 1975, at a cost of $7.6 million, Building 849 was dedicated Sept. 1, 1975. The 435,000 square feet, tri-level structure consolidated several Directorate of Distribution functions. A container fabrication facility was added in early 1976, and an automated storage module added in 1979.