Col. Erland A. Tillman, 101, a member of the APTA Hall of Fame who began a 28-year career in ­public transportation engineering following his retirement from the U.S. Army, died Sept. 6.

 

After retiring from the Army in 1965 as a colonel with the Legion of Merit Medal, Tillman joined the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) as director of engineering, overseeing BART construction until its completion in 1973. He spent a year in Chicago before joining Daniel, Mann, Johnson, and Mendenhall in Baltimore to work on the Baltimore Metro subway system operated by the Maryland Transit Administration. The first 7.6 miles of subway opened in 1983 and the complete 14-station, 15.5-mile system opened in 1995, eight years after Tillman’s retirement. He continued to serve as a consultant for several years.

 

APTA honored Tillman in 1990 by naming him to the APTA Hall of Fame.

 

During his 28 years in the Army, he spent three years in Europe during World War II and later assignments at sites around the world, including the Philippines, Korea, and Turkey; he also served on the faculty of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in ­Washington, DC. Early in the war, he built military camps and airfields in Texas and Oklahoma.