APTA | Passenger Transport
December 20, 2010

In This Issue
» BREAKING NEWS
» NEWS HEADLINES
» APTA NEWS
» 2010: THE YEAR IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
» IN MEMORIAM
» COMMENTARY
» PEOPLE ON THE MOVE


Read the classifieds in this issue to learn about 7 bids & proposals and 7 transit job opportunities!

IN MEMORIAM

In Memoriam: Public Transportation Leaders and Workers

Over the past year, the public transportation industry said goodbye to transit agency chief executives and board members, the first administrator of the former Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA), and a member of the APTA Hall of Fame. In chronological order of their deaths, here’s how they were remembered in the pages of Passenger Transport.

Stephen T. Parry, 59, died Nov. 29, 2009. His transit career began at Occidental College, where he created a two-line bus system that remains in operation today. Parry served the former Southern California Rapid Transit District, now part of Los Angeles Metro, for 23 years and also worked for AC Transit in Oakland, CA, and CHK America.

Bob Ellis, 84, the first board chair of Ben Franklin Transit in Richland, WA, died Dec. 10, 2009. He served 12 years on the board beginning with its founding in 1982, six of them as its chair, and received the APTA Local Distinguished Service Award in 1992.


Carlos C. Villarreal, 85, died Dec. 14, 2009. Appointed by President Richard Nixon, Villarreal headed UMTA (now the Federal Transit Administration) from 1969 until 1973.








Harold Geissenheimer, 81, a public transportation professional for more than 50 years, died Jan. 7. He served transit agencies in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and San Francisco, and worked in the private sector with LS Transit Systems, now part of SYSTRA, retiring in 1996.



Monique Pegues
, 37, director of government relations for the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T), died unexpectedly on Jan. 22. She worked for The T since 1999 and was promoted to her most recent post in 2008, overseeing private-sector lobbyists in Washington, DC, and Texas and managing the agency’s local/regional government and community relations, grants administration, and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise efforts.

Thomas R. Kuesel, 83, an authority on tunnel and bridge engineering and former partner at Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), died Feb. 17. He served PB for 43 years, from 1947 until his retirement in 1990, and worked on major projects including the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District’s Transbay Tube.

 

Bruce P. DeVito, 61, vice president, rail and transit systems, with Gannett Fleming in New York, died March 2. He came to Gannett Fleming after a long career as chief engineer with MTA Long Island Rail Road.







Jim Gleich
, 66, deputy general manager with AC Transit in Oakland, CA, died March 7. Gleich joined AC Transit in 1994 and was promoted to his most recent post in 1999. At the time of his death, he was a member of the APTA Board of Directors and several APTA committees.



Jeanne E. Neese, 60, an attorney and director of government affairs for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in Philadelphia for more than three decades, died April 28. Earlier, she had worked for UMTA. She was a member of the APTA Legislative and State Affairs committees.


Philip Pagano
, 60, executive director of Chicago’s Metra commuter rail service since 1990, died May 7. A past APTA vice chair-commuter and intercity rail, Pagano had worked for the Regional Transportation Authority in Chicago before joining Metra in 1984.










Lawrence Kester, 47, a 15-year bus operator with Omnitrans in San Bernardino, CA, was stabbed to death May 7 as he drove a route in Rialto, CA—the first on-the-job death of an employee in the agency’s 34-year history. Kester was a member of the transit system’s “Million Mile Club,” which recognizes drivers who have safely driven more than one million passenger miles without a preventable accident.




Robert Pattison
, 88, a former vice president of Parsons Brinckerhoff and president and general manager of MTA Long Island Rail Road from 1976 to 1978, died May 12. He also was a founding member of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, playing a leading role in the early studies for high-speed rail in Pennsylvania and Ohio.







Warren H. Frank
, 85, APTA chair in 1985-86 and retired executive director of the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority (CNYRTA) in Syracuse, NY, died May 31. Frank, who retired as CNYRTA executive director in 1993 and served on the board until 1995, received APTA’s Jesse L. Haugh Award, predecessor to the Outstanding Public Transportation Manager, in 1983 and was inducted into the APTA Hall of Fame in 1998.




Gregory J. Cooper
, ARM, AAI, 48, risk manager for Pace Suburban Bus in Arlington Heights, IL, from 2005 to 2010, died of a heart attack July 3. At the time of his death, Cooper was the incoming secretary of the APTA Risk Management Committee.






Cleatus E. Barnett
, 83, a 32-year member of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Board of Directors who served five terms as its chairman, died Aug. 11. He represented Montgomery County, MD, on the board from 1971 through 2003.





Robert Amson Olmsted
, P.E., F. ASCE, 85, former planning director for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and one of the leading transportation planners in New York City, died Aug. 16.









Melba Bayne
, 79, senior mechanical engineer for WMATA from 1981 until her retirement in 1998, died Oct. 4. Before joining WMATA, she was a junior mechanical engineer with Smith, Hichman, and Grylls, and later was a senior mechanical engineer with Bernard Johnson Associates.

Clarence Giuliani, 85, a public transportation official with more than 60 years of experience, died Oct. 13. He served most recently as chief maintenance operator for the Miami Valley Regional Transit Authority (now Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority) in Dayton, OH, where he worked from 1991 until his retirement in 1993.




Robert L. (Bob) Stewart
, 79, a founder of the firm now known as ElDorado National Co., died Oct. 23. The small transit bus firm started out in 1960 as Honorbuilt Manufacturing Company, a manufacturer of recreational vehicles.






Philip H. Braum, 62, an urban planner with 36 years of experience, died Oct. 31. Braum was a senior manager in a regional transit agency and an APTA employee before beginning his 25-year career as a consultant, working most recently for Kimley-Horn.





Steven H. (Steve) Brown
, 54, a 2008 graduate of Leadership APTA with more than 28 years of experience in public transit and transportation engineering, died Nov. 10. He had joined Jacobs Engineering in October 2010 after four years with Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam.







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