We are sad to note the passing of one of COG’s staff members, George Wickstrom, P.E., this past Saturday, June 29 and offer our sincere condolences to the Wickstrom family from the COG family.
Many in COG’s Department of Transportation Planning (DTP) have said that he was a big part of their professional and personal lives during his 25 years of service from 1967 to 1992 and in the decades that followed. Most who worked with Wickstrom said that they learned a lot from him and that he had the rare talent of combining political acumen with technical expertise in all matters in the field of transportation. He is remembered as having not only one of the best technical, ‘nuts and bolts’ minds at COG but being always cognizant of a larger context of the projects, the planning or programming activities, or policy initiatives which came before the Transportation Planning Board at COG.
Among his many accomplishments, the one that is most notable from a regional perspective was his brilliant work on the Metrorail Alternatives Analysis in 1976. After the debut of the region's Metrorail system and amid concerns about future construction costs, COG and the TPB carried out a comprehensive assessment of the costs of completing the original 100-mile system. Various board members had strong and differing opinions on what needed to be done and some of the committee meetings became quite contentious. Wickstrom not only had the technical knowledge to address the strong policy disagreements that arose at the board meetings, he also had the judgement to quickly defuse tense situations with a well-timed quip and his great sense of humor. At the end of the Alternatives Analysis everyone believed their preferred alternative had been fairly and professionally evaluated and accepted the results, which concluded that finishing the rail system would be a sound investment.
Wickstrom directed the first ever household travel survey conducted by COG in 1968. This large scale, wide-ranging regional survey provided the essential data needed for the development of the transportation forecasting models and technical methods necessary to carry out the TPB's newly established responsibilities for conducting a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive transportation planning process for the metropolitan Washington region. Over subsequent decades, he shared his expertise in this area with staff working on regional travel surveys in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Even after he retired from COG, he would call his former colleagues with advice on topics and questions to include in upcoming surveys.
He was uniquely positioned in DTP to serve as the staff lead to take on the very first long-range transportation plan for Northern Virginia, in 1987, the Northern Virginia Sub regional Transportation Plan Study in 1987. This study became the precursor for the current Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s Transaction 2040 Plan.
Since his passing, the most often heard responses from his former colleagues have been:
“George was not only my mentor; he was my lifelong friend. I have many wonderful memories and great stories to tell about what I learned from George.”
“I will miss George greatly, but I will always remember him.”
“George really was one of those unforgettable characters you meet from time to time, and you just had to like him.”
MORE: George Wickstrom message on the TPB's 50th Anniversary