George Lamphere, former president of Washington, D.C.-based contractor Charles H. Tompkins Co. (later known as Tompkins Builders Inc.) and a builder of many city and area landmarks, died on Dec. 10, 2010, in Kensington, Md. Lamphere was 79 years old. He had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, according to The Washington Post.

LAMPHERE

Lamphere, who joined the firm in 1954, served as president from 1985 until retiring in 1996. Tompkins became a subsidiary of contractor J.A. Jones Inc., Charlotte, N.C., in the early 1970s and was acquired by Turner Construction Co., New York City, in 2003, when Jones filed for bankruptcy. Among Tompkins projects during Lamphere’s tenure were the 3.1-million-sq-ft Federal Triangle office complex and new facilities for the U.S. Agriculture Dept. in Beltsville, Md.

Lamphere earned engineering and construction degrees from Haverford College and MIT as well as a law degree from George Washington University.