Name William Ronan | Role Public servant | |
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Died October 15, 2014, West Palm Beach, Florida, United States | ||
William John Ronan (November 8, 1912 – October 15, 2014) was an American public servant and academic who founded and served as the first chairman of New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, from 1968 to 1974. He subsequently served as chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from 1974 until 1977 and remained on the board of the Port Authority until 1990. Prior to entering state government as a key aide to Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York in 1958, he was a professor of government at New York University and served as dean of NYU's graduate school of public service from 1953 to 1958.
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Career
Ronan helped found the Tri-State Transportation Commission. In 1965, he represented Governor Rockefeller on the transaction that saw the state of New York purchase the Long Island Rail Road from the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1965, he was appointed the first Chairman of the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Once it became the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, he became the Chairman of the MTA, a post he held from 1968 to 1974. While Ronan was Chairman, he promoted the construction of a Second Avenue Subway; the MTA broke ground on the subway and the 63rd Street Lines, constructing a double-deck tunnel from Manhattan to Queens that ultimately opened to service in 1989. The upper level, which carried New York City Subway trains, was connected to the IND Queens Boulevard Line in 2001. The lower level, intended for the Long Island Rail Road to go to a new Midtown Manhattan rail terminal as part of the Program for Action, was subsequently used in the construction of a new terminal site under Grand Central Terminal as part of the East Side Access project, which started in 2000. Ronan also oversaw the shuttering of the Third Avenue elevated line in the Bronx.
Education
Ronan graduated from Syracuse University in 1934, and earned a doctoral degree from New York University in international law and diplomacy. He became dean at NYU and helped establish the Wagner School of Public Service from 1953 to 1958.
After stepping down from the Port Authority, Ronan left public life, retiring to Florida, became a widower after his wife of 57 years, the former Elena Vinadé, died in 1996. He died of natural causes at his house in West Palm Beach, Florida, on October 15, 2014, at the age of 101.