James Endler, Who Oversaw Construction of World Trade Center, Dies at 82

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James R. Endler, an engineer who helped manage some of the biggest construction projects of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, including the World Trade Center, Epcot Center at Walt Disney World, and the Renaissance Center in Detroit, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 82.

By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Published: March 29, 2012

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James Endler

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The cause was neuroendocrine cancer, his daughter, Julianne Heckert, said.

Mr. Endler brought his experience as an Army engineer to managing projects, like the trade center, for the Tishman Realty and Construction Company. He later worked on Disneyland Paris and Olympia & York’s Canary Wharf project in London for Lehrer McGovern Bovis, an international construction management firm. He was Tishman’s project executive for Disney’s Epcot Center in Orlando.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey broke ground on the trade center on Aug. 5, 1966, with the on-site engineer Rino M. Monti as construction manager. In his book "Men of Steel: The Story of the Family that Built the World Trade Center" (2002), Karl W. Koch III wrote that Tishman representatives originally served on the construction advisory committee and that the company then became the general contractor. Mr. Endler was Tishman’s vice president during that time.

After the destruction of the trade center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Endler told The Putnam County News and Recorder that they had been "built as safe as any building could be built."

James Richard Endler was born on Jan. 25, 1930, in Passaic, N.J., and was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers and served in the Korean War. After entering the private sector he joined Tishman in 1961 and worked on the new Madison Square Garden atop Pennsylvania Station. He retired from Tishman in 1983 as president, chief operating officer and vice chairman. He then ran his own real estate development firm for four years before joining Lehrer McGovern Bovis .

In the early 1980s, Mr. Endler was instrumental in building a Jewish chapel at West Point , where there had long been only Roman Catholic and Protestant chapels. He remembered long marches as a cadet to attend Jewish services in a funeral chapel at the academy cemetery, an experience he likened to Moses’ "wandering in the desert."

In 1999, Mr. Endler published "Other Leaders, Other Heroes: West Point’s Legacy to America Beyond the Field of Battle." It told how West Point graduates had improved the country’s infrastructure, building railroads, bridges and the like. Booklist said the book "fills a niche in American historiography."

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Endler, who lived in Garrison, N.Y., is survived by his wife of 57 years, the former Myra Lynette Thayer; his son, Peter; his sister, Sheila Kiviat; and two grandsons.

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