Many people serve to improve the construction industry every day. And each year, for 45 years, the editors of ENR have reviewed the stories they have written during the year and selected people featured in them for special recognition.
John Hernan, a construction advertising sales executive whose West Coast-based career at Engineering News-Record and its parent firm McGraw-Hill Corp. spanned more than 44 years, died on Dec. 19 in California of melanoma-induced cancer. He was 85. HERNAN Hernan began his ENR career in 1960 and soon became one of its most prolific and successful sales executives. At his retirement in 2004, McGraw-Hill Construction Group Publisher Jay McGraw said he was “one of the most dedicated and knowledgeable members of our advertising sales team.” John Bodrozic, president of Meridian Systems, a Folsom, Calif., project management software firm, recalls Hernan’s guidance
The process of construction is a work of art in itself, often covered up by the utility or beauty of the project’s final form. Construction often starts out under conditions that are difficult, challenging and sometimes dangerous, as the following pages of ENR photo-contest winners demonstrate. Still, the skills, will and financial ability to succeed usually persevere and the built environment and society are almost always better for the improvement. Slide Show Photo: Photographer Chris Lamon, project engineer, McCarthy Building Companies Inc. submitted by Heather Riekena, McCarthy creative services coordinator Lamon had the ENR photo contest in mind when he
Howard Hill, director of technical operations and a principal of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc., examined the collapsed Interstate-35W Bridge in Minneapolis. He traded emails recently with ENR Chicago Bureau chief Tudor Van Hampton on how he heard of the disaster, what he found when he reached the scene and how WJE decided the design error was made. Photo: Courtesy Howard Hill Related Links: NTSB Cites Gussets and Loads in Collapse Safety Board Finds Bridge Plates Too Thin NTSB Finds Fractured Gussets in I-35 Span WJE's Final Report NTSB's Final Report As the first person to point to gusset plates
John Hernan, a construction advertising sales executive whose West Coast-based career at Engineering News-Record and its parent firm McGraw-Hill Corp. spanned more than 44 years, died Dec. 19 in California of melanoma-induced cancer. He was 85. Hernan began his ENR career in 1960 and soon became one of its most prolific and successful ad sales executives. "He was an extraordinary professional," says Howard Mager, a retired McGraw-Hill senior vice president and ENR publisher. Hernan retired in 2004. John Bodrozic, president of Meridian Systems, a Folsom, Calif.-based project management software firm, recalls Hernan's guidance when the firm started operation in the
Frank R. Finch, president of engineering consultant Greenhorne & O’Mara Inc., Greenbelt, Md., has been promoted to the added position of CEO. In that role he replaces John Healey, who remains board chairman. Finch, president since 2007, had been director of U.S. Army Environmental Programs and the Army Corps of Engineers district engineer in Baltimore and Chicago. He also is former executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. Geospatial Holdings Inc., the Pittsburgh-based holding company for underground pipeline GIS technology firm Geospatial Mapping Systems Inc., has named David Vosbein executive vice president for worldwide strategic initiatives. He was
Raymond J. Milchovich will continue as chairman and CEO of Foster Wheeler Ltd., deferring his previously announced 2009 retirement under a new three-year agreement, the Clinton, N.J., power and industrial contractor announced on Nov. 4. Milchovich, 59, has been in his current roles since 2001. NANNA Charles L. “Chuck” Harrington, CEO of Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif., has been elected to the added post of chairman, replacing James F. McNulty, who is retiring but will remain on Parsons’ board. Harrington joined Parsons in 1982 and became CEO in May. Michele T. Nanna joins the contractor as vice president of business development
MARSCHALL Rear Adm. Albert R. “Mike” Marschall, third commander of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command and an industry and government construction executive, died on Nov. 18 in Alexandria, Va. He was 87. A Naval Academy graduate, he was NAVFAC commander and chief of civil engineers from 1973 until he retired in 1977 after 36 years in the Navy. Marschall also was a vice president at George Hyman Construction Co., Washington, D.C., and a commissioner of the U.S. General Services Administration’s Public Building Service. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and was a national president of the Society
President George W. Bush has appointed C.W. (Bill) Ruth to serve as United States Commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission. Ruth, a 25-year-veteran of the agency who retired in 1998, was sworn in and assumed his duties on Nov. 24. The post had been left vacant with the death of the previous commissioner and his Mexican counterpart in a plane crash two months ago. International Boundary and Water Commission deals transboundary issues along the U.S.-Mexico border that include flood control, sanitation, boundary demarcation and mapping. It traces its history back to 1889 although its current incarnation was established
Amtrak has named the head of the Federal Railroad Administration, Joseph H. Boardman, to be the company's president and CEO, on a one-year appointment. The passenger railroad said that Boardman, who had been FRA Administrator since 2005, began his new job on Nov. 26. Board Chairman Donna McLean said the company will undertake a search for a permanent CEO. Boardman could be a candidate for the permanent CEO post, says Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black. At FRA, Boardman was the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's designee on Amtrak's board. Before coming to the rail agency, he was commissioner of the New York
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