Above: Bill Fife '62, left, in a group shot taken at the Professional Women in
Construction Transportation Forum on July 15. Mr. Fife moderated the event.

Faces of Xavier: Bill Fife '62 

By his own count, Bill Fife ’62 has retired three times—but slowing down isn’t part of his plan.

On July 15, the Golden Knight once again served as moderator of the Professional Women in Construction Transportation Forum, an event he has led for the past 20 years. As principal of The Fife Group, his consulting firm, he acts as senior technical advisor to Weidlinger Associates, a structural engineering company. He also finds the time to lecture at the annual aviation planning course at the University of California, Berkeley.

Mr. Fife is used to a hectic schedule. Previously, he served as Corporate Vice President for AECOM, where he was responsible for the firm’s aviation business line, including airport security. Before that, he was the General Manager of Aviation Planning and Technical Services for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Prior to that role, he served as the Deputy General Manager of John F. Kennedy International Airport and Chief Planner for the Port Authority. Throughout his career, Mr. Fife has emphasized interagency collaboration. He has co-chaired a peer review group of major U.S. and Canadian airports for the past 27 years, making major contributions to airline safety and security. In the Xavier tradition, he also served as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force.

His love of travel and transportation may have been born during his lengthy high school commutes. “I was an intermodal wonder,” Mr. Fife recalled of his experience traveling to 16th Street. “I took the bus from our home in Midland Beach to the Staten Island Rapid Transit (SIRT) station in New Dorp, the SIRT to the ferry, the ferry to South Ferry, and the subway up 7th Avenue to Xavier. It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes each morning and each afternoon!”

Mr. Fife—a graduate of Manhattan College, Brooklyn Poly (now the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering), and Long Island University-C.W. Post—is the recipient of countless industry awards, but his proudest achievement is his family. He and his wife, Pat, have been married for 47 years. All three of their children attended Jesuit colleges, Mr. Fife said, noting their involvement in domestic and international service trips and his daughter’s time in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Son Bill Jr., a former Fordham Prep teacher, now heads the Family Practice residency program at Lancaster General Hospital in Lancaster, Penn.; son Patrick is a partner at a law firm on Long Island; and daughter Lara is a registered nurse, following in her mother’s footsteps, working as a nurse practitioner at the City of Hope Clinic in inner-city Washington, D.C.

Mr. Fife is rightfully proud of his children’s chosen careers. “I’m big on the Jesuit tradition of men and women for others,” he said.