TAMPA, Fla. — If you have traveled through Tampa International Airport, then you know her work, although you may not know her — Jane Davis Doggett is an internationally recognized designer, known in Tampa for her design of Tampa’s original airport. 

This weekend, the airport will recognize her at its GALA honoring women in aviation.

It’s thanks to Jane Davis Doggett that travelers can easily get around TPA. She originally came up with the design for the airport in the late 1960s. 

“See, my system started here, here’s the entrance sign, and here are your lead up color coded signs,” said Jane, referring to the red and blue zones you see at TPA still today.

Jane was the only woman at that table, but her voice carried, and she made the engineers listen to her idea. “They were calling the two sides of the terminal north and south, and I said who the [[refrain from expletive]] knows north and south, particularly in a complicated place like the airport?!”

The engineers knew she was right. The red and blue zones start the second you arrive, and the entire airport is easily separated for travelers. 

After the original Tampa Airport was complete, over 40 other airports also brought Jane on, using her design idea.

“Some dumb dame had to think of it because the engineers were too “MIT” as we used to call it, to think it would work,” Jane said as she pointed at herself.  

Jane is a firecracker, and she likes to think some of her confidence came from her time spent at Yale. 

“I think that’s where I got my freedom, at Yale, because if you can pass that, an all-boys, all-men school, then you can pass anything.” And of course, the confidence she has in herself and her work.  

Jane also designed TPA’s logo, which is still in use today. At 92 years young, Jane knows her legacy at the airport will likely outlive her, and she says she’ll always be cheering on other women to follow in her footsteps.

“Keep up the fight! And don’t fail to use your charm and wit and everything with it because that’s all part of achieving.”

Jane’s design work at Tampa’s airport received all kinds of national design awards, and she was also inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2016.