Baloney. He came back for his ego. He's already got more money than anyone can spend in a lifetime -- it's ALL about ego with these guys.
He bailed on NWA as CEO when the tough times arrived; getting a pay bump to the health care sector helped assuage his ruffled feathers and ego. Prior to that he was a lawyer-shill for Francisco A. Lorenzo during part of that individual's disgraceful tenure @ Continental. Anderson moved to NWA when many of Lorenzo's "hit-team", i.e., Mickey Foret, Ben Hirst et'al, migrated from Houston to the corporate offices in Minneapolis-St. Paul as Lorenzo was forced out of his controlling interest in Continental. And .... ultimately forced out of the airline business ....
Anderson attempted to "play nice" with the unions then promptly backed off when revenues went south after the record profits of the late '90's and, of course, after 9/11 he decided the airline game was "too hard". During his tenure at NWA, Anderson pretended to have an "open door" policy and wanted people to call him "Richard".
The NWA pilots called him "Dick"....
No matter what the window dressing, with Dick Anderson at the helm, the agenda is always about "Dick" ....