Jeffrey F. Kriendler, the public voice of Pan American World Airways during some of the airline’s most tumultuous years, and beloved by countless colleagues around the world, died on September 3, 2022 in Miami. Jeff had been hospitalized after a fall in his home. He was 76 years old.
Jeff joined Pan Am in 1968 as a management trainee in the Flight Service department. He went on to hold senior management positions with Pan Am in both Flight Service and Dining Services, and later in the Public Relations department. In 1982, he was named Vice President of Corporate Communications, and from that time until the airline ceased operations in 1991, Jeff was the airline’s chief spokesperson, an exceptionally high-profile job of dealing with the media, investors and the public.
Jeff loved Pan Am. “Jeff was Pan Am,” said Ed Trippe, son of the airline’s founder, Juan T. Trippe, and chairman of the Pan Am Historical Foundation.
And Pamela Fiori, a friend and former editor of Travel & Leisure and Town & Country magazines, remembered, “He was such a wonderful and gifted man – totally dedicated to his career at Pan Am, both during and after his days in Corporate Communications.”
No matter how serious the issues facing the airline, Jeff responded to the media and the public with sincerity and pride in the company — from the sale of the huge Pacific Division in 1985, to the tragic Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, to the airline’s eventual bankruptcy and cessation of operations in 1991.
Like so many airline employees, Jeff was an enthusiastic traveler. There was likely no Pan Am destination (in the 1980s, nearly 100 cities worldwide), that he had not visited, usually multiple times. Wherever he went, he made long-lasting friends.
Sports was another of his passions. An avid golfer from a young age, he closely followed the PGA tour, and he was an avowed Yankees fan. And Jeff was a bit of a “news junkie”: Ask him about any current news event, and he would recite every detail of the issue, and never hesitate to give you a strong opinion of the matter.
Jeff was born in New York City, the son of Florence and Bob Kriendler, one of the owners of the legendary “21 Club” – or the “Numbers,” as Jeff would call it. He graduated from Cornell University’s well-regarded hotel school. But hotels were not to be in his future; it was the airline business he loved.
In 1991, shortly after Pan Am’s bankruptcy, Jeff suffered a mild stroke, and he moved from New York to Miami (he always hated cold weather, he would say). In Miami, he was active as a member of the Board of Directors of the Pan Am Historical Foundation, and worked with the City of Miami on many Pan Am history-related projects. In 2011 and again in 2017, he collaborated with James Patrick Baldwin on books about Pan Am — Aviation History Through the Words of its People and Personal Tributes to a Global Aviation Pioneer. He also wrote anthologies of Eastern Airlines and Trans World Airlines, and was a contributor to various aviation publications.
He is survived by Catherine DeMoura Kriendler, his daughter by his former wife, Melanny Aoas; a sister, Karen Kriendler Nelson and her two children, Mark Kriendler Nelson and Christopher David Nelson (spouse Amy Rees and daughter Simone Rees Nelson); and a brother, Jack Kriendler and Jack’s wife, Wendy, and their two daughters, Jennifer Kriendler (spouse Julius English), and Dana Kriendler, as well as many beloved cousins.
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