Honored Boca Grande engineer encourages Manhattan graduates

George Tamaro of Boca Grande returned to Manhattan College 52 years after graduating from the Riverdale, N.Y., institution to collect his honorary doctorate of engineering. Tamaro, a 40-year former resident of Leonia, N.J., now lives in Bristol, R.I., and Boca Grande. He went back to his old stomping grounds to give the keynote address as Manhattan College awarded more than 200 degrees at its May 21 spring commencement. “Discover those moments when you experience or learn something that speaks and resonates with you, that reveals something about yourself or about the way the world works,” Tamaro said. “It may come from a challenge you overcome or something you read or someone you meet or some aspect of your work. No matter where you go from here don’t stop discovering, learning or growing.” The latest Manhattan College distinction honors Tamaro's distinguished career, which included notable projects such as:

n World Trade Center reconstruction projects, including Freedom Tower, World Trade Center 7, Towers 2, 3, 4, 5 and Memorial;

n the World Trade Center and the below-grade recovery after Sept. 11, 2001;

n Battery Park City Site 26 Tower;

n Toree Major in Mexico City, Mexico;

n Times Square Tower, 4 Times Square and 5 Times Square;

n JFK Light Rail Transit System;

n Central Artery/ Third Harbor Tunnel;

n World Financial Center;

n Financial Square; and

n MesseTurm Tunnel in Frankfurt, Germany.

Tamaro has authored and co-authored more than 75 works on foundation engineering, caissons and slurry wall construction for leading engineering and construction publications, journals and conferences.

“In a world that is beset with so much rapid change, disorder and uncertainty, you are very fortunate,” Tamaro told the students. “You have the knowledge, the values and essentials.”

Tamaro has more than 50 years of experience in foundation engineering and was a partner at Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers for more than 25 years where he still works as a consultant.

In design and construction, he is an international leader in the field of complex foundation problems and slurry wall construction. He holds several U.S. and Canadian patents in slurry wall construction, and has considerable experience in conventional foundation and marine construction, sheeting, bracing and underpinning.