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In Memoriam: Gambaccini: Half a Century of Service
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 Louis J. Gambaccini, 87, a member of the APTA Hall of Fame and chair of APTA from 1992-93, with more than 50 years experience in the public transit industry, died Aug. 19.
As part of a career lasting more than 50 years, Gambaccini spent three years as New Jersey commissioner of transportation and founding chairman of the New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit); 32 years with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, including 20 years as vice president and general manager and in other senior positions overseeing the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation; and eight and a half years as general manager of Philadelphia’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA).
| “Lou Gambaccini was an extraordinary leader who shaped transportation policy for more than five decades at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, NJ Transit, SEPTA and, at the national level, as chair of APTA. He will be fondly remembered for his passionate and visionary leadership and his mentorship of so many in our industry,” said APTA President and CEO Paul P. Skoutelas.
Jerome Premo, principal, Premo Partnerships, said of Gambaccini, “Lou was a lion in the world of public service. Where others were cautious and too often accepting of the average, Lou aspired to and expected excellence in service to the public, both for himself and for those who worked under his leadership. His legacy is wide and deep, whether at the Port Authority, New Jersey Department of Transportation, NJ Transit, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Rutgers or other stops along the way.”
He continued: “Without Lou's vision and determination, NJ Transit would not exist. He knew that great things don't happen by accident. Sustained investments in physical infrastructure—and in people—were and are essential to insuring NJ Transit's, and in turn, New Jersey's health and vitality.
“Lou and I both studied at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University,” Premo said. “In the main foyer of the school is an inscription from the Athenian Oath: ‘We will unceasingly seek to quicken the sense of public duty ... we will transmit this city not only less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.’
“Well done, sir. Thank you, always, for your leadership, advocacy and sterling example of public service.“
Gambaccini came to Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, in 1998, following his retirement from SEPTA, as director of the National Transit Institute and established the Alan H. Voorhees Transportation Center, including the founding of a new research institution, the Voorhees Transportation Policy Institute.
He was a past chair of APTA, the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee and the former Tri-State (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut) Regional Planning Commission. APTA inducted him into the Hall of Fame in 1999 and named him an honorary member of the Board of Directors in 2005; he earlier served on several APTA committees.
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