Related Links: Contractors Association of Greater New York "Walking Steel": 2004 Video Tribute to John Cavanagh UPDATE: A public memorial for John A. Cavanagh will be held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan on Jan. 24 at 3 p.m. CavanaghJohn A. Cavanagh admitted he was "scared to death" scaling high-rises as a young field engineer for a New York City contractor, but he ended up climbing to the heights of the city's tough construction business some 50 years later as a top company executive, the founder of a leading contractor bargaining group and an industry activist for union construction.Cavanagh died

Related Links: alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1950/PDFs/RSH%20Work%20History1.pdf Richard Holmgren career oral history for MIT   HOLMGRENRichard S. Holmgren, who led the firm that was a key corporate precursor of engineering giant MWH Global, Broomfield, Colo., died on Oct. 31 in Santa Ana, Calif., at age 84.Holmgren, an MIT-educated civil engineer, joined James M. Montgomery Consulting Engineers Inc. (JMM) in 1958 as a sluice-gate designer on a California water treatment plant and went on to serve as its chief operating officer, president, CEO and chairman, retiring in 1993.While he was CEO in the late 1980s, the firm passed the $100-million mark in revenue.JMM merged with

Photo Courtesy of Roadway Worker Training Inc. Plane piloted by Crisafi (right) crashed Oct. 3, killing him and construction business associate Vaccarello in Gary, Ind. Related Links: Website of All-Railroad Services Corp. (Vaccarello) Website of Roadway Worker Training Inc. (Crisafi) Online obituary for Patsy Crisafi Federal investigators are continuing a probe into the crash of a private plane on Oct. 3 near Gary, Ind., that killed two Florida-based veteran rail construction executives, one of them the pilot. But a preliminary report offers few clues to the cause of the accident.Killed were Patsy J. "PJ" Crisafi, 48, co-founder and executive vice

Related Links: Website of All-Railroad Services Corp. (Vaccarello) Website of Roadway Worker Training (Crisafi) Online obituary for Patsy Crisafi Federal investigators are continuing a probe into the crash of a private plane on Oct. 3 near Gary, Ind., that killed two Florida-based veteran rail construction executives, one of them the pilot. But a preliminary report offers few clues as to the cause.Killed were Patsy J. “PJ” Crisafi, 48, co-founder and executive vice president of Roadway Worker Training Inc. and Vincent “Vinnie” Vaccarello, 45, co-founder and co-president of All Railroad Services Corp., both in St. Augustine.Crisafi was piloting the plane, a

Related Links: Website of the American Concrete Institute Eugene H. "Gene" Boeke Jr., a onetime jobsite water boy at Beers Construction Co., Atlanta, who became vice president of the firm and its successor, Beers Skanska, as well as a nationally recognized expert in reinforced-concrete construction, died on Sept. 29 in Roswell, Ga. He was 86.Boeke supervised construction of numerous major high-rise buildings in Atlanta and the Southeast. He also co-authored a 1980 book on advances in construction methods for the American Concrete Institute (ACI), a key concrete technology advocacy group based in Farmington Hills, Mich.Boeke was a vice president of

Related Links: Expanded obituary of John Lamberson   LambersonJohn R. Lamberson, 79, former president of New York Stock Exchange-listed insurance broker Corroon & Black, founder of its construction practice and a 40-year industry insurance and surety veteran, died on Sept. 12 in Palo Alto, Calif.The cause was complications of cancer, says the National Academy of Construction, into which he was inducted in 2004.Lamberson left the firm in 1992, after its acquisition two years earlier by U.K.-based Willis, Faber & Dumas PLC. According to previous ENR coverage, the departure resulted in bitter litigation between Lamberson and the successor firm, Willis Corroon,

  TORCIVIABenedict J. Torcivia Sr., an architectural engineer who grew contractor Torcon Inc., Red Bank, N.J., into one of the state's largest building firms and a major East Coast presence, died on Aug. 27 in Rumson.A firm spokesman says he died of natural causes but had been treated for lung cancer.Torcivia, 82, founded Torcon in 1965 and was succeeded as president by two sons in 2003.The firm, a major drug-industry builder, ranks at No. 151 on ENR's list of the Top 400 Contractors, with $376 million in 2011 revenue, including $62 million overseas. It also is No. 80 on the

CPP Inc. The researcher-practitioner, 89, whose innovative wind tunnel at Colorado State University attracted many visitors such as artist Andy Warhol (right) in 1971, pioneered wind-resistant design techniques that are standard today. Related Links: A Career Tribute to Jack E. Cermak by Wind Engineer Ahsan Kareem Colorado State University Slide Show on the Work of Jack E. Cermak Engineer Jack E. Cermak, who was dubbed the "father of wind engineering," and was a pioneer in the study and testing of the impact of extreme wind forces on engineered structures, died in his sleep on Aug. 21 in Fort Collins, Colo.,

Related Links: Ric Licata, 59, Founder-Principal of Reno Architect Licata Hansen Associates Website of J.F. White Contracting Co. Website of Garver LLC J.F. White Helps Build Worlds Largest Water Disinfection Plant in NYC Suburb W. Brock Johnson obituary Stephen J. Barlow obituary Three construction industry firms lost company leaders to cancer within the same week.Richard D. "Ric" Licata, principal and founder of Reno, Nev.-based Licata Hansen Associates Architecture, died there on Aug. 18 at age 59.Stephen J. Barlow, president and chief operating officer of Massachusetts design-build contractor J.F. White Contracting Co., died the next day, and W. Brock Johnson, CEO

Frank A. Lee, a chemical engineer who led publicly held Foster Wheeler Corp. during a decade of growth and innovation in the 1970s and fended off an acquisition attempt, died on Aug. 12 in Old Tappan, N.J. He was 88.LEELee was named president and CEO of the contractor-manufacturer in 1971, after difficulties in its boiler business had led to several years of revenue falloff. He noted the firm's "image problem in the market" in a 1974 Forbes magazine article.Lee helped expand the firm's global markets and presided over technical advances in fluidized-bed power-generation design and construction. But he opted not