William Ronan, the first chairman of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, died at age 101, the MTA confirmed late Friday.
"Bill Ronan was a legend in the field of public transportation and an inspiration for everyone who understands that mass transit is the engine that powers New York," MTA chairman and chief executive Thomas Prendergast said in a statement.
Ronan died Oct. 15.
Gov. Nelson Rockefeller appointed Ronan chairman of the agency - then called the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority. Ronan was key to the expansion of transit options in the New York metropolitan area during his tenure at the MTA and his later work as head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Ronan was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on Nov. 8, 1912, and attended schools in upstate New York, including Syracuse University, where he graduated in 1934. He received a doctorate from New York University in international law and diplomacy. He later became a professor and dean at NYU, where he established what is now NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
He met Rockefeller two years before the latter became governor of New York, and became his private secretary in 1958.
Under the Rockefeller administration, Ronan helped establish the Tri-State Regional Transportation Commission. He served as the head of the MTA from March 1968 to April 1974, when he became chairman of the Port Authority.
With Ronan in charge, the MTA embarked on several improvement and capital projects, such as new subway lines in Queens and the Second Avenue Subway. The agency built a two-level rail tunnel under the East River at 63rd Street - one level now carries an expansion of the F subway line, and the MTA is using the other for the East Side Access project to bring LIRR trains into Grand Central Terminal.
