‘He is the airport’: Orangeburg terminal named after ‘Mr. Aviation’

Orangeburg city officials and many of Joye’s family and friends gathered Thursday at the airport, where he was officially honored.

“Once again, it is a great day in Orangeburg and also a great day to pay tribute to one of Orangeburg’s finest,” Orangeburg Mayor Michael Butler said.

“Carroll was an integral part of developing our municipal airport and for that we are thankful and that’s why we’re here,” Butler said.

Orangeburg Director of Public Works John Singh said, “Carroll is somebody who started that work on the airport. He is the airport. He’s the passion.

“He has passion about aviation, about the aviation industry and the time that I’ve been (working) in the city – watching different people at the Breakfast Club and anything else – it’s just so neat to have someone that brings aviation history, brings aviation to the City of Orangeburg and the county.”

“But it’s so special what he’s accomplished, all of the things – whether it be in the military, all of the (flight) instructions he’s done, all of the things he’s done getting people in and out of the airport. But what I leave with is the fact of the passion that he has had for this airport and the passion that he has for aviation,” Singh said.

Joye is a “tremendous giant, not only in the aviation field, but in Orangeburg, in the city of Orangeburg and the state of South Carolina and indeed the country,” Orangeburg City Administrator Sidney Evering II said.

“We are so fortunate to be able to call Mr. Carroll Joye one of our own,” he said.

Evering highlighted some of Joye’s accomplishments:

• In aviation for more than 50 years
• After retiring from the U.S. Air Force as a senior master sergeant, Joye began his civil aviation career in 1971.
• He taught as an automotive mechanics instructor and later as a pilot and flight instructor.
• Joye served as the Orangeburg Municipal Airport manager and is largely responsible for the terminal, which was built several years ago.
• He’s logged more than 30,000 flight miles.
• In 1995, Joye was named Certified Flight Instructor of the Year by the Federal Aviation Administration.
• In 2003, he was inducted into the S.C. Aviation Association Hall of Fame.
• He shares his love of flying with his grandsons, whom he’s also taught to fly.

A humbled Joye thanked city officials, airport employees and everyone else in attendance for honoring him.

He told the crowd that during his service in the Air Force, “I never thought about flying the airplanes. Never.”

It wasn’t until 1971 that he went to flight school.

“I still have glitter in my stomach when I take off,” he added.

After Thursday’s brief program, one of his daughters, Connie Joye said, “There are no words. There are no words.

“This is well-deserved, long overdue. He deserves every accolade he gets, absolutely.”

Beverly Joye, Carroll Joye’s wife, said, “It’s an awesome thing. I look at Carroll. He came from a very poor family, you might say, and surviving every day – day in and day out – but he’s mastered so much in his lifetime.”

“I call him ‘Mr. Aviation,’ but he has really achieved an awful lot,” she said.