John F. Donohoe, chairman of Moretrench American Corp., a major geotechnical construction firm based in Rockaway, N.J., and industry activist and innovator, died suddenly of a heart attack Dec. 2 while addressing an employee gathering at the company office, officials say. He was 67. DONOHOE Donohoe, a civil engineer and 45-year Moretrench veteran, had served as the company’s president from 1982 until 2002 and as CEO as well from 1995 until 2007. He was also current president of the General Contractors Association of New York (GCANY) and winner of the 2009 OPAL award last spring for construction innovation and excellence
CIANCHETTE Ival R. “Bud” Cianchette, a founder and former top executive of Pittsfield, Maine-based The Cianbro Cos., one of the state’s largest general contractors, died on Nov. 5 at age 83 in Falmouth, Maine. Cianchette had contracted cancer, according to local reports. Cianchette and three of his brothers, sons of Italian immigrants, founded their company in 1949. Bud Cianchette served as its president, chairman and chairman emeritus from 1962 until his death. Cianbro, which ranks 149 on ENR’s list of The Top 400 Contractors, reported $478 million in 2008 revenue, split among general building, industrial and transportation markets. The firm
Michael Horman, associate professor of architectural engineering at Pennsylvania State University, State College, who also specialized in research on building efficiency and use of lean construction in green buildings, died Sept. 15 while teaching a graduate course, says the school. He was 38 and suffered a fatal heart attack, according to published reports. HORMAN Horman was director of the university's Lean and Green Research Initiative, a research effort focused on high-performance and sustainable building design and construction, and co-editor of its Journal of Green Building. He also served as assistant specialty editor for the American Society of Civil Engineers' Journal
SCHMIDT Richard L. “Dick” Schmidt Sr., who rose from apprentice mason to third generation family leadership of CG Schmidt Inc., Milwaukee’s largest building contractor, died Sept. 10 in West Bend, Wis. at age 77. Cause of death was not disclosed. Schmidt was chairman of the contractor, which ranks 288th on ENR’s list of The Top 400 Contractors, with $256 million in 2008 revenue. He had previously served as its president and CEO, a post now held by his son, Richard L. “Rick” Schmidt Jr. CG Schmidt, founded in 1920, is noted for construction of projects that include an addition to
Ralph R. Peterson, who was to retire next month at age 65 as chairman of CH2M Hill Cos. after building the former regional engineering firm into a $6.5-billion diversified global construction competitor, died Sept. 1 from stomach cancer. He had battled it for several years. Peterson with staff on Singapore job. “I will miss his intellect, his ability to deal with complex issues and his desire to help others succeed,” says Lee A. McIntire, a former Bechtel Corp. executive who succeeded Peterson this year as president and CEO. “He was an industry icon.” Peterson had been CEO since 1991. CH2M
Ralph R. Peterson, who was set to retire next month as chairman of global project manager CH2M Hill Cos. after building the firm into a $6.5-billion, 25,000-person industry force, died late on Sept. 1 from complications of cancer. He had battled the disease for several years. He was set to turn 65 on Oct. 12. Peterson spent 44 years at CH2M Hill. "I will miss his intellect, his ability to deal with complex issues and his desire to help others succeed," company CEO Lee A. McIntire told employees in an internal email. "He was an industry icon." The former Bechtel
HANSON Daniel J. “Dan” Hanson Sr., former president and CEO of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, Washington, D.C., died on Aug. 8 in that city at age 80. The cause of death was not disclosed. Hanson, who joined ARTBA in 1968 and retired in 1991, was one of its key advocates for federal surface transportation funding legislation. He previously served as deputy director of traffic engineering and operations in the city government and was also the first city traffic engineer in Peoria, Ill. Charles Gwathmey, the noted modernist architect and co-founder and principal of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates
KAMINETZKY Dov Kaminetzky, a pioneer in forensic engineering and founding partner and 30-year president of New York City engineer Feld, Kaminetzky and Cohen (FKC), died on July 17 after a long illness. He was 83. Widely known for his expertise in structural failures, he authored “Design and Construction Failures—Lessons From Forensic Investigations,” published in 1992 by The McGraw-Hill Cos., the parent of ENR. Kaminetzky also was structural engineer on such New York City landmarks as the Guggenheim Museum and the North River water pollution-control plant, both in Manhattan, and an adjunct professor at City University of New York’s graduate engineering
MCNINCH Edwin K. McNinch, a veteran bridge construction engineer and constructibility expert who worked on some of the most technically challenging U.S. spans over a 58-year career, died July 11 in San Mateo, Calif. He was 80. McNinch was president of San Mateo-based EKM Engineering, which he founded in 1987, after a 36-year career with contractor Guy F. Atkinson Co. Projects on which he consulted include the Third Carquinez Strait Bridge in California, Hawaii�s H-3 Viaduct and the I-205 span across Oregon�s Columbia River. �Ed was instrumental in the early adoption and development of prestressed concrete, concrete segmental bridges and
Engineer and professor emeritus Alan G. Davenport, a pioneer in wind engineering for buildings and bridges, died on July 19 at age 76 after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Models for many of the world’s tallest and longest structures ended up in the hands and wind tunnel of Davenport, one of the first to use wind tunnels in the design of structures. An engineering professor at the University of Western Ontario, he founded its renowned Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory in 1965. He consulted on the designs of New York City’s World Trade Center, Chicago’s Sears Tower, Toronto’s CN