Former Parsons Brinckerhoff Chairman Steve Greenfield Is Dead at 84 11/20/2006
Seymour S. "Steve" Greenfield, former chairman of New York City-based engineering giant Parsons Brinckerhoff and a long-time industry innovator and leader, died on Nov. 17 in Englewood, N.J. He was 84. Cause of death was pancreatic cancer, according to a Parsons Brinckerhoff official. Greenfield, who joined PB in 1947, became a company partner in 1964 and served in the chairman role from 1982 until 1989. Even after his official retirement in 1995, he was a presence in the company who "who continued working several days a week" until his death, says current PB Chairman and CEO Thomas J. O'Neill.
Greenfield has been a technical innovator at PB since he joined the firm following his World War II service in the U.S. Navy. He was hired as a project engineer on military bases in Iceland and Newfoundland that were being converted by the Army Corps of Engineers for use by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formed in 1949. Greenfield "played a major role in PB's design of several hardened defense facilities, including the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)" adds O'Neill. He also served as principal-in-charge for PB's work in designing several nuclear waste repositories in the U.S. and for facilities in Texas and Louisiana related to America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve.