Obituary: Richard N. Weeks, 97, Led Weeks Marine to Growth; Kathryn Jablokow Is Manhattan U. Engineering Dean
David Fenton has been named CEO at Cranshaw Construction, a Newton, Mass., general contractor and CM firm. A 20-year veteran of Suffolk Construction, he was its national government chief operations executive and chief operations officer.
Kathryn W. Jablokow is dean of the Manhattan University School of Engineering in Riverdale, N.Y., effective Aug. 1. She was deputy director of the RISE division in the National Science Foundation's Geosciences Directorate and
co-authored its the foundation's Artificial Intelligence Roadmap.
Jablokow also was an associate chief academic officer at Penn State
Univerisity and remains Professor Emerita of engineering design and
mechanical engineering. She secured funding for a regional entrepreneurship and innovation hub at the school and led development of a new regional, multi-campus four-year College of Engineering degree focused on multidisciplinary engineering design. Jablokow is an American Society of Mechanical Engineers board of governors member and Fellow.
AECOM has appointed Jim Renne as senior vice president and managing director of its sports design practice, based in New York City. He was national sports and entertainment director for global real estate services firm JLL.
Suffolk has hired Darick Edmond as vice president of project development in Leesburg, Va., and Vail McMillian as director of MidAtlantic preconstruction in Herndon, Va. Edmond returns to Suffolk from a role as Skanska operations senior vice president. McMillian was formerly a Consigli preconstruction manager.
Dan Rakes, MidAtlantic regional director of mission critical for Kansas-based Henderson Cos., has also been named to head its new Washington, D.C., area office in Chantilly, Va. The firm is parent of Henderson Engineers and Henderson Building Solutions.
Alison N. Landry has joined Jacobs Solutions as vice president and New York City strategy lead. She was chief infrastructure officer for the city under the deputy mayor for operations and also served as associate commissioner for alternative delivery at the city Dept. of Design and Construction.
Tara Soesbee has joined professional services firm STV as vice president of rolling stock client engagement. Previously, she was senior director for Amtrak’s long distance fleet replacement program. The firm also promoted to vice president Lauren Alger and Breanna Horne, strengthening its national sustainability and resilience practices, according to the company.
Ames & Gough, insurance broker and risk management consultant for professional service firms, has promoted to senior vice president Allison Barefoot, based in Washington, D.C., and Marguerite Parent, in Boston.
Richard N. Weeks, 97, who grew his family’s stevedoring business into Weeks Marine, a major international heavy construction, dredging, tunneling and coastal restoration contractor in Cranford, N.J., died on Aug. 17. Among its many projects, the firm removed debris after the 9/11 attacks, salvaged the US Airways flight flown by Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger from the Hudson River and was key in Hurricane Katrina recovery and restoration. A civil engineering graduate of Rutgers University, he later donated $6 million toward its 106,000-sq-ft advanced engineering building and endowed in 2018 a $10-million undergraduate engineering scholarship—the largest in Rutgers history at the time. Weeks Marine became a wholly owned subsidiary of Kiewit Corp. in 2023.
Philip P. Bonanno, 93, longtime president of Boston-based J.F. White Contracting, died Aug. 13. After earning a bachelor's degree and a masters in civil engineering at what was then Columbia College in New York City, he joined the contractor in 1968, later overseeing projects including the Ted Williams Tunnel and Charles River Dam. He endowed a Columbia scholarship in 1996 to support future engineers.
