IN MEMORIAM: Bill Quick (October 14, 1933 – September 3, 2013)

Bill Quick was a true “Tunnel Stiff.” He was born in Colorado and raised in California and Alaska to a family of tunnel people: his father, grandfather and Uncle Clarence, who was killed while excavating the Brooklyn Battery tunnel in New York. Bill started his career early going to Alaska to homestead a claim for a mine, after a few years was drafted out of Anchorage serving in the U.S. army from 1954 to 1956 at Fort Lee, Va.

From there Bill found work on a tunnel project in California, starting a 57-year plus span that included projects in most of the lower 48 states, plus Alaska, Canada, Africa, Europe, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and most of the civilized and sometimes uncivilized parts of the world, while attending correspondence and night classes while on the different sites. Projects included the Caldecott Tunnel No. 1 in California, the first TBM job in New York together with John Hester, WMATA in Washington, D.C., the Big Dig in Boston, and compressed air and bad ground projects in Atlanta. Many times Bill would take over a troubled job and bring it home safely.

Never being a ‘yes man’ and cantankerous at times made him the person he was. He was respectful of others and loyal and truthful, almost to a fault. He learned the industry the hard way and  constantly improved the conditions on every job he handled from being a drill runner, mucker operator and master mechanic; he was proficient in every respect.

His final retirement allowed him to finish rebuilding the house in Talmo, Ga., and what a job he did, a perfect example of the man. A multitude of Eulogies were received from his friends, co-workers, engineering firms, and others of high regard in his chosen endeavors.