In Memoriam: John R. Lamberson, Founding Member of the Construction Institute

John R. Lamberson of Atherton, California, was a driving spirit within the original group of construction professionals who came together in 2000 to organize the Construction Institute (CI). He served as the first services director of CI. Our friend, a construction industry icon, passed away on September 12, 2012, after a brief but gallant battle with cancer. We have all lost a very special type of man, a man who was dedicated to the success of the Construction Institute and to the individual success of every person he came in contact with.

John was a member of The Beavers, The Moles, Building Futures Council, the Associated General Contractors of America, the Associated General Contractors of California, the Construction Financial Management Association, and Construction Institute of our society.

At the time of his death, he was president of Lamberson Consulting LLC, a management consulting company he formed in 1998 that specialized in the construction industry. His family was from Missouri but moved to California, and he graduated from Alameda High School at 16. He graduated from the University of California–Berkeley in 1954 and served in the Army at Ft. Lewis. In 1958 he took a job as a surety bond underwriter with Safeco Insurance Company in Sacramento. But his real entrance into construction came in 1961 when he accepted an offer to join Miller & Ames, a San Francisco insurance and surety brokerage firm specializing in the construction industry.

John remained with Miller & Ames and its successor companies, Corroon & Black and Willis Corroon, for 32 years. He was president and director of Corroon & Black, a major New York Stock Exchange insurance brokerage firm. While there, he founded the firm’s Construction Industry Division. With the merger of Corroon & Black and Willis Faber into the Willis Corroon Group, John was a director of Willis Corroon Group and CEO of Willis Corroon, the retail brokering business unit worldwide.

He was a trustee of the Beavers Charitable Trust and served as director of several major construction companies. Additionally, he found time to lecture and share his knowledge in such forums as Stanford University’s Masters in Construction Management, Young Presidents’ Organization, the American Graduate School of International Business, and the Construction Financial Management Association.

John Lamberson was honored in 1990 with the Golden Beaver Award for Service and Supply, and in 2006 he was elected to the National Academy of Construction. A great believer in giving back to the communities that gave him so much, John led the fundraising efforts of the Beavers Charitable Trust. His vision of bringing practical construction industry experience to the university leads the Beavers to provide financial support for the establishment of chairs of heavy construction practice at Arizona State University, California State University–Long Beach, Oregon State University, Purdue University, University of Washington, and Texas A&M University.

The San Francisco/Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America honored John in 2000 as the “Scout of the Year.” John Lamberson exemplified the spirit of the Boy Scout Oath—“to help other people at all times.” We have lost a wonderful and inspiring friend. Requiescat in pace.