Related Links: Check ENR archives for obituaries of other construction industry leaders and innovators Stephen P. Byrne, a construction executive and educator who pushed contractor certification and helped shape the construction science department at Texas A&M University, died suddenly on Feb. 11 from back surgery complications, says the school. He was 59. BYRNEByrne, a senior lecturer since 2000, also managed internships and was executive director of Texas A&M's Construction Industry Advisory Council. He previously worked for the school as associate executive director of facilities, planning and construction.A certified professional constructor, Byrne was a fellow of the American Institute of Constructors and

Related Links: Obituary archives of industry leaders and innovators Guy F. Tozzoli, who as director of the world-trade department of the Port of New York Authority, helped push construction of the city's World Trade Center complex in the 1960s, died on Feb. 4 in Myrtle Beach, S.C. His death at 90 was announced by the World Trade Centers Association. He founded the group in 1970 and was president emeritus.The WTC's 110-story Twin Towers were the first such structures the agency, predecessor of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, had ever built. But Tozzoli told ENR in 1971

Related Links: Archives of ENR obituaries of AEC sector leaders, innovators and achievers   JohnstonJames F. "Floyd" Johnston, 72, founder-owner of Floyd Johnston Construction Co., a Clovis, Calif., pipeline contractor, died in a Jan. 6 plane crash near Porterville, Calif. He was flying a single-engine Beechcraft on a private outing.An online obituary said the plane broke up in flight. An employee, Jacob Curiel, age 28, was also killed.According to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board, the debris path was more than a half-mile long, with "the cabin separated into several sections that were scattered throughout the center"

JonesMatthew L. Jones, a civil engineer and a 38-year veteran of the Illinois Dept. of Transportation, died on Jan. 9 of heart failure at age 82.Jones also was a member of the Aurora, Ill., Planning Commission from 1971 to 2007, and served as well on the Naperville Planning Commission.A 1956 engineering graduate of the Indiana Institute of Technology, he had a role in building the extension of I-355 and in Aurora's becoming the state's second-largest city, according to the Chicago Tribune.

  HopkinsJohn Hopkins, a visionary landscape architect who directed the team that created the 250-acre green space for the 2012 London Olympics from a former brownfield site, died on Jan. 21 in West Philadelphia after a heart attack at age 59.Hopkins led the design as project lead for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). The nearly $400-million park is reopening in phases, beginning this summer, as the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park.Hopkins, also an urban designer and environmental planner, is a former partner in LDA Design, London, and a Fellow of the U.K.'s Landscape Institute. His awards include the institute's Peter

Related Links: February 2011 Video Tribute to Jay Wadman 2011 Video About Wadman Corp.   WadmanAs a boy, David L. Wadman, now CEO of Ogden, Utah, contractor Wadman Corp., was less than thrilled to be "packing cement" for his father's company on summer mornings rather than joyriding on a motorcycle, he said in a 2011 video tribute.But the firm founded by his father, V. Jay Wadman, in a business the younger Wadman once thought was the "stupidest," had revenue of about $88 million in 2012 and is one of the state's leading building contractors.The elder Wadman, credited by his son

Related Links: Today's Critics Offer Tributes to Ada Louise Huxtable in Architectural Record Ada Louise Huxtable, the influential New York City-based architecture critic and winner of the first Pulitzer Prize for criticism, died there on Jan. 7 at age 91 of cancer, according to her attorney.“She set the standard for architectural criticism in our time,” according to the editors of Architectural Record magazine, which like ENR, is part of the McGraw-Hill Cos.As a longtime critic for The New York Times and later The Wall Street Journal, Huxtable “wrote penetratingly against the mindset of entitlement that allowed developers to remake cities

Related Links: Obituaries of other noted industry leaders and pioneers James N. Kise II, 75, a noted Philadelphia-based architect and urban planner, died Dec. 26 in Freeport, Maine, of a heart ailment. A principal and co-founder of Kise, Straw & Kolodner, he oversaw local projects that won national acclaim and overseas developments such as Guayana City, Venezuela, and Egypt's 241-sq-mi Sadat City. KISEKise oversaw several projects in historic Phiadelphia, including the 3.5-mile-long Avenue of the Arts in the city center district combining old and new cultural institutions and entertainment attractions.The American Planning Association named the eight-block stretch one of America’s great

Courtesy of O Empreiteiro Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, dead at 104, created the modern city of Brasilia and other iconic buildings around the world. Courtesy of government of Brazil As in this 1950s-era cathedral in Brasilia, Niemeyer's emphasis on curves pushed Brazilian engineers to new levels of innovation to accommodate the untested designs. Related Links: Architectural Record slideshow of Oscar Niemeyer's well known buildings Homepage (in English) of Brazil Construction Publication O Empreiteiro The idea of moving Brazil's capital to the undeveloped interior dated to 1789, but it took until 1957 for work to begin. Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, along

Related Links: 100 Years of Coal Age   WilkinsonJoseph F. Wilkinson, a former managing editor of ENR in the 1960s and 1970s and an award-winning journalist, died on Nov. 28 in Brooklyn, N.Y., of cardiac arrest at age 87.Wilkinson joined ENR in the 1950s and was managing editor from 1969 to 1976."Joe was the first ENR staffer to be a Vietnam war correspondent," says ENR Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Arthur J. Fox. "At his own initiative, he also was the first and only ENR editor to visit Antarctica and report on activities there."Adds Fox, "Joe's writing was 'splendid,' a favorite word of