With the passing of Barbara Cesar, the San Fernando Valley lost a vocal advocate for aviation and the future of the business. Not simply the co-founder and chief executive of Syncro Aircraft Interiors, Cesar started events showing young people aviation was about more than piloting a plane. Aviation Career Day drew thousands to Van Nuys Airport for two years and a recent program partners Valley aviation and aerospace companies with high school students. The week after her death Nov. 10 at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, a group of students from Monroe High School were scheduled to start internships at Syncro. That will be the legacy Cesar leaves behind. “When a person like that is gone it leaves a deep hole,” said Kenn Phillips of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley. Cesar, 56, died of complications from minor surgery. A crowd of more than 300 people turned out Nov. 16 at the Syncro hangar at Van Nuys Airport for a memorial service during which helicopters and planes based at the airport did a flyover. Glen Foster, Cesar’s brother, recalled his sister as someone who was a beacon drawing people to her with her beauty, character and personality. “Her greatest joy was helping others to be the best they could be,” Foster said. Cesar and husband Ed started Syncro in 1978 and moved the business to Van Nuys in 1990. Two years later, the couple became embroiled in a lengthy dispute with Los Angeles World Airports over the lease for their hangar on Woodley Avenue. The matter was resolved in 2005, three years after Ed Cesar died. Syncro designs and makes custom interior for private aircraft owned by charter management firms, Hollywood studios, and other large corporations. Cesar’s handling of day-to-day operations at Syncro earned her the CEO of the Year Award in 2006 by the Business Journal at its annual Women Who Mean Business event. Cesar’s strong bond to flying and the aviation industry was something that was in her blood, said Robert Rodine, a consultant with clients in the aviation industry. There were a number of times when Rodine encouraged Cesar to consider an alternative location for Syncro other than Van Nuys Airport. “She wouldn’t hear of it,” Rodine said. “There was no dissuading her of that.” Cesar designated in her will that Pierre-Louis Moroni, the head of sales, become CEO of the company. Moroni adopted Cesar’s mission to grow the company and continue making specialized interiors for its clients. Syncro’s 25 close-knit employees faced a tough time following Cesar’s death as many have worked there for years and were around when Ed Cesar died, Moroni said. “It’s like we lost our mom and dad,” Moroni added. Friends described Cesar as sweet, generous and always ready to give of her time to volunteer work; treating every one with the same dignity be it a corporate executive or teenager. Of late, Cesar turned her attention to high school and middle school students to let them know about career opportunities in aviation and aerospace. Cesar and City Councilman Tony Cardenas began Aviation Career Day in 2006. The first year was open to the public while this year’s event was invitation only drawing 1,800 students from 24 high schools. Unique about Cesar’s approach was she showed the relevancy of math and science to aviation. “She would bring them to the airfield to get a sense of excitement to show this was possible,” Phillips said. Preliminary discussions had started just prior to Cesar’s death on staging the career day in 2008. Phillips and Cesar worked together on the San Fernando Valley Aviation Aerospace collaborative, a program providing internships to 500 students, a speakers bureau, company tours, and pairing business people with students on projects. “It was nice she let me in for the ride,” Phillips said. One business owner participating in the internship program, Airpac Enterprises CEO Lisa Rajic never met Cesar in person but the two women became friendly through phone calls. The two had similar backgrounds, and Cesar empathized with Rajic whose husband had recently died. “She inspired me and helped on a personal level to focus on something worthwhile,” Rajic said. Along with Foster, of Falls Church, Va., Cesar is survived by her two sisters, Jean Foster and Alexandra Foster of Tijeras, N. M.; a niece, Lani Tyler, and two nephews, Trevor and John Tyler, also of Tijeras.
