Active 7 years, 10 months ago
1928-2017
Jack E. Turner
Jack E. Turner, a charter member of the National Academy of Construction, passed away on July 2, 2017, in Houston, Texas. He was 88. Services were held at Fellowship Bible Church in Pearland, Texas, on July 7.
Jack was a native of Houston, born on August 20, 1928. After graduating from high school there, he enrolled at Texas A&M University in the fall of 1945. By 1949, he had earned a degree in mechanical engineering. During Jack’s A&M days, his father had moved the family to the small town of Freeport, Texas, to work for the Dow Chemical Company. Jack arrived from College Station looking for engineering work, and after a short stint with a Dow contractor, the Austin Company, he was hired by Dow.
For the next 35 years, Jack worked for Dow and was a catalyst for change in an industry that was at the time both chaotic and yet key to the U.S. economy. The 1950s and 1960s saw troubling times for all stakeholders in the construction industry: owners, contractors, organized labor, and the associated management, legal, surety, and other interests. Productivity was declining. Wage demands were increasing. Overtime became a strategy. Finally, capital costs soared out of sight and signaled a tipping point. Something had to give.
Jack, representing Dow as a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, joined a task force to study the problems associated with the industry. In 1968, Jack’s task force suggested that an organization be formed to represent the major purchasers of construction services. This group, known as the Construction Users Anti-Inflation Round Table, was soon established. The objective was to educate owners and emphasize the importance of a healthy construction industry. The Anti-Inflation Round Table immediately began looking for solutions to the industry’s problems by forming several task forces. Jack chaired a task force assigned to study the industry’s jurisdictional disputes.
Having already assisted in forming an owner support group in Houston, he and others suggested to the Construction Users Anti-Inflation Round Table that similar groups be organized in other locales to help owners in understanding important contractor issues. The response was the development of a nationwide network of “local user groups.”
In 1972, the Construction Users Anti-Inflation Round Table, led by U.S. Steel CEO Roger Blough, merged with the March Group, made up of CEOs considering policy issues, and the Labor Law Study Group, executives involved in labor relations, to form The Business Roundtable. Jack became a charter member of the Construction Committee of The Business Roundtable. He chaired the BRT’s first three National Conferences of Construction Users. In 1975, he was recognized for his outstanding contributions by being nominated as Construction Man of the Year by Engineering News–Record. He would serve as chairman of the Houston Business Roundtable the following year.
In 1977, The Business Roundtable Construction Committee found traction to the idea of truly improving the industry when it examined a recently released study on the effects of overtime and shift work on cost and schedule. The committee then began to focus on getting two key groups, the users and the contractors, to join together to solve the persistent problems in the then-number-one contributor to the nation’s GDP. Blough, the U.S. Steel CEO, wanted action and called for a small task force to hammer out a path forward. Jack was chosen as one of six industry leaders on the task force, which met at Columbia Lakes, Texas. Jack suggested a comprehensive study be undertaken to reach beyond labor issues and take aim at problems with management of both owners and contractors. The six members of the task force at Columbia Lakes then drew up a framework for what would become The Business Roundtable’s landmark Construction Industry Cost Effectiveness (CICE) Project.
The CICE Project drew from owners, contractors, and academia to carry out the exhaustive study of the industry, its problems, and how it could improve. Jack played a key role as the first chairman of the project. He also helped to persuade The Business Roundtable to hire General Carroll Dunn, who was retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and working for Con Ed of New York at the time, to direct the CICE project, which was conducted from 1978-83. Dunn went on to lead the 125 companies and 250 participants for the next five years in the study that eventually would provide the industry with more than 200 recommendations for improvement, one of which led to the creation of the Construction Industry Institute, today the most well-known construction research consortia in the world.
In addition to his work with The Business Roundtable and CICE Project, Jack was directing major Dow projects. In 1981, Dow entered a joint venture with Sabic, the Saudi Arabian basic chemicals corporation. He realized he needed to devote his energies to the upcoming Petrokemya project. He was confident he was leaving CICE in good hands and moved to the Netherlands to serve as managing director and chief operating officer of the $1.3 billion project. Two years later he returned to the U.S. and was assigned as manager of basic resources for Dow, managing acquisition and divestiture of basic resource properties for Dow assets, which exceeded $500 million.
With his final two major assignments completed, Jack retired in 1985 after 35 years with Dow. His career had taken him around the world, with assignments in Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Thailand, Korea, Hong Kong, Yugoslavia, and the Netherlands. He had served as construction engineer, construction superintendent, manager of contract administration, manager of engineering and construction services, and manager of capital construction projects and capital purchasing resources. He also had helped with construction craft training programs and management curriculum development. He served as a member of the Greater Houston Merit Shop Training Trust as well as the Industry Advisory Council at the Texas A&M Department of Construction Science. He was a registered construction arbitrator and mediator, and a member of the American Council for Construction Education.
Jack, a Silver Life member of the National Academy of Construction, is survived by his sons, Jay and Dean, of Houston; his stepdaughter, Regina Tubay Young, and her husband, Charles of Pearland; his stepson, Robert Tubay, and his wife, Sharon, of Punta Gorda, FL; four grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren; niece Sharon Knox and nephew Larry Buchanan; and numerous friends. Jack was blessed to find love late in life with Roberta Comley, who survives him. Preceding him in passing are his parents; his sister, Johnelle; his first wife and mother of his two sons, Monette; and his wife of 38 years, Marilyne Hubbard Turner.
― Charlie Brown and Richard Tucker, 2017
Jack was a native of Houston, born on August 20, 1928. After graduating from high school there, he enrolled at Texas A&M University in the fall of 1945. By 1949, he had earned a degree in mechanical engineering. During Jack’s A&M days, his father had moved the family to the small town of Freeport, Texas, to work for the Dow Chemical Company. Jack arrived from College Station looking for engineering work, and after a short stint with a Dow contractor, the Austin Company, he was hired by Dow.
For the next 35 years, Jack worked for Dow and was a catalyst for change in an industry that was at the time both chaotic and yet key to the U.S. economy. The 1950s and 1960s saw troubling times for all stakeholders in the construction industry: owners, contractors, organized labor, and the associated management, legal, surety, and other interests. Productivity was declining. Wage demands were increasing. Overtime became a strategy. Finally, capital costs soared out of sight and signaled a tipping point. Something had to give.
Jack, representing Dow as a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, joined a task force to study the problems associated with the industry. In 1968, Jack’s task force suggested that an organization be formed to represent the major purchasers of construction services. This group, known as the Construction Users Anti-Inflation Round Table, was soon established. The objective was to educate owners and emphasize the importance of a healthy construction industry. The Anti-Inflation Round Table immediately began looking for solutions to the industry’s problems by forming several task forces. Jack chaired a task force assigned to study the industry’s jurisdictional disputes.
Having already assisted in forming an owner support group in Houston, he and others suggested to the Construction Users Anti-Inflation Round Table that similar groups be organized in other locales to help owners in understanding important contractor issues. The response was the development of a nationwide network of “local user groups.”
In 1972, the Construction Users Anti-Inflation Round Table, led by U.S. Steel CEO Roger Blough, merged with the March Group, made up of CEOs considering policy issues, and the Labor Law Study Group, executives involved in labor relations, to form The Business Roundtable. Jack became a charter member of the Construction Committee of The Business Roundtable. He chaired the BRT’s first three National Conferences of Construction Users. In 1975, he was recognized for his outstanding contributions by being nominated as Construction Man of the Year by Engineering News–Record. He would serve as chairman of the Houston Business Roundtable the following year.
In 1977, The Business Roundtable Construction Committee found traction to the idea of truly improving the industry when it examined a recently released study on the effects of overtime and shift work on cost and schedule. The committee then began to focus on getting two key groups, the users and the contractors, to join together to solve the persistent problems in the then-number-one contributor to the nation’s GDP. Blough, the U.S. Steel CEO, wanted action and called for a small task force to hammer out a path forward. Jack was chosen as one of six industry leaders on the task force, which met at Columbia Lakes, Texas. Jack suggested a comprehensive study be undertaken to reach beyond labor issues and take aim at problems with management of both owners and contractors. The six members of the task force at Columbia Lakes then drew up a framework for what would become The Business Roundtable’s landmark Construction Industry Cost Effectiveness (CICE) Project.
The CICE Project drew from owners, contractors, and academia to carry out the exhaustive study of the industry, its problems, and how it could improve. Jack played a key role as the first chairman of the project. He also helped to persuade The Business Roundtable to hire General Carroll Dunn, who was retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and working for Con Ed of New York at the time, to direct the CICE project, which was conducted from 1978-83. Dunn went on to lead the 125 companies and 250 participants for the next five years in the study that eventually would provide the industry with more than 200 recommendations for improvement, one of which led to the creation of the Construction Industry Institute, today the most well-known construction research consortia in the world.
In addition to his work with The Business Roundtable and CICE Project, Jack was directing major Dow projects. In 1981, Dow entered a joint venture with Sabic, the Saudi Arabian basic chemicals corporation. He realized he needed to devote his energies to the upcoming Petrokemya project. He was confident he was leaving CICE in good hands and moved to the Netherlands to serve as managing director and chief operating officer of the $1.3 billion project. Two years later he returned to the U.S. and was assigned as manager of basic resources for Dow, managing acquisition and divestiture of basic resource properties for Dow assets, which exceeded $500 million.
With his final two major assignments completed, Jack retired in 1985 after 35 years with Dow. His career had taken him around the world, with assignments in Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Thailand, Korea, Hong Kong, Yugoslavia, and the Netherlands. He had served as construction engineer, construction superintendent, manager of contract administration, manager of engineering and construction services, and manager of capital construction projects and capital purchasing resources. He also had helped with construction craft training programs and management curriculum development. He served as a member of the Greater Houston Merit Shop Training Trust as well as the Industry Advisory Council at the Texas A&M Department of Construction Science. He was a registered construction arbitrator and mediator, and a member of the American Council for Construction Education.
Jack, a Silver Life member of the National Academy of Construction, is survived by his sons, Jay and Dean, of Houston; his stepdaughter, Regina Tubay Young, and her husband, Charles of Pearland; his stepson, Robert Tubay, and his wife, Sharon, of Punta Gorda, FL; four grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren; niece Sharon Knox and nephew Larry Buchanan; and numerous friends. Jack was blessed to find love late in life with Roberta Comley, who survives him. Preceding him in passing are his parents; his sister, Johnelle; his first wife and mother of his two sons, Monette; and his wife of 38 years, Marilyne Hubbard Turner.
― Charlie Brown and Richard Tucker, 2017
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