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 that the agency would be its own general contractor, hiring Tishman Construction as its key agent but awarding 200 prime contracts (ENR 2/11/71 p. 30).

TOZZOLI

He also persuaded city Mayor John Lindsay to allow dirt excavated for the towers to be deposited along the southwest shore of Manhattan to become the foundation for the new Battery Park neighborhood, says a published report in New Jersey.

The towers were completed in 1973. Tozzoli retired from the agency in 1987.

Tozzoli also helped build the world's first container port in Newark, N.J., says the association, which he led as staff president from 1987 until 2011. The group, which says it now has more than 300 members in 100 countries, promotes international trade and the building of world-trade centers globally.