Debra Ruiz’s 50-year career as MSP Airport started as a one-day fill-in assignment back in 1975.
A friend from Simley High School asked her to come along and help as a server that day at the short-handed airport coffee shop.
“I hadn’t applied. And I was hired on the spot. I was 17,” Ruiz said recently, sitting at a table in Chili’s at MSP’s Terminal 1. Back then, the airport’s concourses didn’t have restaurants, she said. The hotspot for dining was the coffee shop and food hall, just off the mall.
A couple of weeks ago, on Sept. 30, HMSHost — the MSP concessionaire that operates Chili’s — had a reception for Ruiz at the restaurant and bar to celebrate her 50 years at MSP. The crowd included dozens of her colleagues, friends and other airport staff. A plaque, a large balloon display and signs to mark the occasion were all part of the pageantry.
The reception at Chili’s took place just steps from the 1975 location of the then-coffee shop where Ruiz worked her first day at MSP.
“It’s crazy how big this place has gotten,” she said, recounting highlights of her years at MSP and the life she built with her husband and two daughters.
Her dedication to the MSP customers has never waned. She still gets up at 2 a.m. each morning that she works, arriving at the airport by 4 a.m. so that she’s ready for early-flight passengers when the restaurant opens at 5 a.m.
She emphasizes the service mindset at Chili’s is a team effort. There are other long-time employees at Chili’s too, including Steve Damberg, a bartender who has 40 years with HMSHost.
Only in recent years did Damberg and Ruiz start working at the same restaurant. Damberg says she has a presence in the workplace and helps her co-workers follow procedures and keep the operation running smoothly.
“She’s a devoted mother and grandmother, and she carries that over here,” he said.
Brushes with fame
Ruiz has worked at MSP long enough to remember two regulars at her tables, Ray Glumack and Dorothy Schaeffer — both former Metropolitan Airports Commission employees who are in the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame.
She’s had plenty of celebrity encounters as well. She remembers serving Dale Evans, the actress and singer, and the four members of the band KISS, who came in without their make-up on.
Comedian Eddie Murphy was a customer — “there were bodyguards all around him,” she said — and Hulk Hogan was in her section once too.
When another pro wrestler, Andre the Giant, sat at one of her tables, he ordered 18 eggs and 3-4 orders or bacon. “He was a very nice guy,” she said.
Ruiz was working the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when the terrorist attacks on the East Coast quickly shut down aviation nationwide. She remembers the concern as the morning drew on, the terminal emptied out and passengers made alternative plans. “All the stores shut down that day except us,” she said.
Many airport employees didn’t return for a day or two, she said. When she was called back, employees were escorted in for security purposes each day, until tighter measures were enacted.
Friendly customers always made an impression. She remembers some $50 tips, and one $100 tip.
Technology has advanced greatly in her 50 years at MSP, and it’s changed the interaction with customers. “They spend a lot of time on their phones now,” she said. “It makes it harder to wait on them.”
Looking back, and forward
Ruiz takes pride in the snowstorms she’s navigated to get to work or get back home. She recalls one Thanksgiving when the snow started falling after she arrived at work.
“My friend and I decided we were going home, even though we could have stayed at the airport,” she said. Her friend ended up pushing the car out of the snow in sandals. They did make it home safely.
When she first started at the airport, she had plans to get an accounting degree. She was married a few years after she started the airport job, and soon after, the couple bought a house in Inver Grove Heights. Two daughters followed. She liked the work at MSP and stayed on the job.
“The money was always good here,” she said.
In January of 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Ruiz had a heart attack. She worked an entire shift thinking she was dealing with heartburn. A day later she drove herself to the hospital. She was out for three months, but was determined to get back on the job, and did.
A few months ago, an accident at home left her with a fractured back. She’s rehabilitated herself from that setback as well. She took her work schedule down to 30 hours a week this summer.
As she’s looked at where she’s at and what she wants to do, she decided in recent months to end her serving days at the end of this year.
“It’s time to retire and take care of myself,” she said.
Her daughters are now 39 and 36, and she has two grandchildren as well.
“I’ll miss coming to work here,” she said, “but I’ll be able to see my grandkids more.”
Over the years, she’s adjusted to her early morning start time, and she gets by most nights on about six hours of sleep. Is she ready for a more normal schedule?
“I’m sure it’ll be a shock to the system,” she said. “MSP is like my second home.”
