Robert Page Obituary
PAGE ROBERT W. PAGE, SR. "Bob" Died peacefully after a long illness at his home in Georgetown on Tuesday, June 29, 2010. He held numerous positions of great sensitivity and responsibility throughout his highly varied public service career, including Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Corps of Engineers, and Chairman of The Panama Canal Commission. He was also a member of President Reagan''s Export Council and President George H. W. Bush''s Domestic Policy Council. Mr. Page was a veteran of WWII, serving in the Navy in the Pacific theater of operations and was involved in covert assignments in the Middle East and Central America. He was one of the original Navy Seals known at that time as UDT or Underwater Demolition Teams and received honorable discharges from The Navy, Marines and The Army (Airborne). Mr. Page was a pioneer in modern American civil engineering planning and project management. He served in several capacities with Kellogg Rust, Inc., including chairman and chief executive officer, 1982 - 1987; president and chief executive officer with M.W. Kellogg Co., 1981 - 1983; and president and chief executive officer for Kellogg Rust, Inc., 1983 - 1984. From 1976 to 1981, he was president and chief executive officer with the Rust Engineering Co. He was president and chief executive officer for George A. Fuller Co. in New York 1972 - 1976, and vice president of construction for Rockefeller Family and Associates, 1967 - 1972. He was assistant general manager for the Bechtel Corp., 1962 - 1967, and vice president for the Southeast Drilling Co., 1961 - 1962. He also held positions with ARAMCO, McDermott International, and was a member of the Turkish American Business Council. In 1988, he was honored as the National Association of Professional Engineers "Man of the Year" in Construction. Mr. Page graduated with an Engineering Degree from Texas A&M University. Foreshadowing the eclecticism he exhibited throughout his life, Bob Page chased Norman Granz" Jazz at the Philharmonic across Texas to New Orleans while President of his A&M class. He served as an Assistant Professor of Engineering at The American University of Beirut in the 1950s and more recently taught at The American University in Washington DC and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, MA. and was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, MBA School. He was the author of well-received novels, "Ambush Ever Lies," "Chain," and "The Vow." The Page Family have summered in Little Compton, Rhode Island for many years. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Nancy Eaton Page, sons David Benfer Eaton Page of Cleveland, OH, Mark Tyler Page of Little Compton, RI and daughter, (Meg) Margaret Penrose Page of Rockville, MD, and three granddaughters. His eldest son, Robert W. Page, Jr. died in 2008. A private service will be held in Rye, NY in late July; a memorial service in Washington, DC in September.
Published by The Washington Post on Jul. 6, 2010.