Bill Hurd

[Tristan]

Not sure if too many people here knew him, but Bill Hurd passed away yesterday morning at age 93. 

He was one of the founding fathers, I guess the founding architect, of DASH back in the early 80s and then served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors up until his retirement in 2006/7 (thereabout) at I think 91.  So significant was his contribution to Alexandria Transit that the new DASH facility, under construction, was dedicated to him while he was still alive (City of Alexandria usually waits 5 years after someone's death before something is named after them).

He told our General Manager that he had done everything he wanted to do in his lifetime -- and that lifetime was dedicated to public transportation.  If anyone remembers Cody Pfanstiehl of WMATA, Hurd was probably the same thing to DASH and Alexandria.  He has received numerous awards during his lifetime, too many to even list in this thread.  There will be a tribute to him on this website very soon, as I can collect material for it.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

An obituary ran for him in today's Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/16/AR2008111601891.html