1944
John Rudolf survived the ending of World War II as a child without both parents and lives among strangers when German and Soviet army fronts were passing through the village. During a difficult period after being hungry and very sick until was rescued by his 18 year old aunt who arrived from a different village and carried him on bike to her home.
1945
After recovering from the sickness in the aunt, uncle and grandma home, John Rudolf started first time elementary school. But, while walking to school a couple of miles along the main road he was hit by soviet army truck, which by sudden braking skidded on the icy road so he luckily survived with broken hip and other complications weeks in local hospital.
1947
United with Mother at age of 11 after a 10-year separation (father and baby son) from her due to interruption of plans by WWII. It was a critical milestone in his life. Two years after the war ended Mother was able to locate the husband through the Red Cross and was allowed travel from USA to unite. His mother Josephine Rudolf was a US citizen born in Whitestone, NY, who during WWII worked on a Grumman assembly line building Avenger Bombers like “Rosie the Riveter” at the time of War. A clip from Grumman paper shows her picture as Josephine without last name to avoid German prosecution of the family.
1959
Parents practically have escaped to USA and later in 1961 with many difficulties, John was able to join them and begin new career in different language and norms.
1960
Graduated as Jan Rudolf with MS degree in civil engineering from the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology in Poland. His schooling started late because of the war, but with great efforts and determination, he caught up, finished High School and passed competitive exams to the Institute.
1962
At start of his career in the USA with HNTB-NYC for 11+ years he work very hard to accommodate language and obtained excellent design experience which contributed to many projects in US. Among others, he was heavily involved in planning and design of complicated highway interchanges, with bridges and viaducts designs, e.g., such as Cross Bronx-Bruckner Expressway and Hutchison Pkwy in NY, etc.
1966
For great performance in the office planning room, the HNTB management nominated John to higher responsibility as Principle Designer in the very demanding Structural Design Group lead by Chief Engineer Mr. Charles H. Clarahan Jr., the Golden Gate Bridge Designer. The office Manger stated: “We selected you for the Design Group, Congratulations and Good Luck.” It was scary, very tough but great learning. Then it followed with Mr. Gerard F. Fox, as the new Chief of the Group, later was nominated as the Partner. He was a great engineer and lecturer on Columbia University where he taught the beginning of computer application in structural design of bridges, which he started in the office. John was not afraid of tough and demanding work and was always happy accept challenges and says: “If there is a will, there is a way”.
1970
Partner Gerrard Fox asked Mr. Rudolf to prepare precast pre-stressed concrete bridge beams designs criteria based on new researches and develop design standards for Pen DOT. John created from a scratch an innovative approach with complete structural designs using computer programs for many types of beams, on any span and spacing, all presented on colorful graphs which was approved by Pen DOT in 1973 and used as the State Design Standards. The work was equal to thesis for PhD, according to one of his college professors.
1972
Mr. Rudolf, through exam by State University of New York, became a registered Professional Engineer in New York State until 2023 followed with certification in Virginia and Maryland in 1974, both until 2022, and District of Columbia (D.C.) in 1974.
1973
John Rudolf decides to move on and utilize excellent design experience on: the General Construction Consultant (GCC) team; Bechtel Associates for managing construction of the USA Capital new Metro System, the Washington DC Metrorail, which included at the beginning many different tunnels; in rock, soft ground and under rivers, including Sunken Tube under the Washington Channel and many underground stations by tunneling and with deep cut and covers construction using temporary supports of excavations mainly in city streets. These included a long bridge across Potomac River and Pre-stress Concrete Aerial Structure at the National Airport. This first part lasted 12 years on GCC team where M. Rudolf was promptly promoted to the Chief Civil/Structural Engineer on the projects.
1982
Receives a Letter of Appreciation from the WMATA Director of Construction for his innovative solutions, allowing a successful and timely completion for opening of the deep underground stations under Connecticut Avenue in Washington, DC.
1985
The second part, after the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) took over the GC management and Mr. Rudolf was rehired as the Chief Civil/Structural Engineer in the Office of Engineering and Architecture to continue his direct involvement with design and construction management of the entire original 106 miles Washington DC Metrorail until its completion. These all together lasted 30 years and the construction covered tens of miles below ground structures and above ground including bridges and viaducts, in all focusing on design and construction process including all field engineering aspects of the Metrorail projects since its inception until John’s retirement from the WMATA in 2003.
1998
For his success in design and construction engineering, John Rudolf was the recipient of the 1998-WMATA General Manager Meritorious Achievement Award. He believes he has accomplished the WMATA objective and goals in some capacity through hard work, determination and bravery to take on tough and demanding work.
2003
Mr. Rudolf retired from WMATA, only after was invited by Delon Hampton & Associates to serve as the Lead Engineer in Parson Management Consultants (PMC-the joint venture) team for design and construction of the Automatic People Mover on the International Airport at Dulles, Virginia.
2004
John Rudolf was called by a large Design-Build contractor, the Dulles Transit Partners (DTP) who obtained Notice to Proceed with design and construction of Metrorail extension to the Airport. They placed Mr. Rudolf in multiple major positions on the team as the Chief/Project Engineer, the Chief Structural Engineer and Engineer of Record responsible for 5 disciplines for all designs from Preliminary to Final and Construction of the Metrorail extension the Silver line Ph-1 through Tysons Corner to International Airport at Dulles, Virginia that he fulfilled extremely well by designing and constructing his section with highest quality until its successful completion in 2013 and full satisfaction of Metro.
2013
This was the most difficult year for Mr. Rudolf, he lost his only son, a medical doctor who saved his father and sister’s lives before he died. After losing his son, Mr. Rudolf began serving as Chief Structural Engineer for Tunnels and Bridges at Gall Zeidler Consultants (GZ), helping in designs of various domestic and international projects and presently continues in this role.
2014
His distinguished role continued at GZ while serving the WMATA as the Structural Engineering Manager for review and the approval of contractors designs during construction of the Metro extension the Silver Line Ph-2 until 2017.
2021
Mr. Rudolf continues contributing his experience in GZ team to many projects national and international and still is involved in many projects for Railroads, Metros, MAGLEV (High-Speed-Rail-DEIS) and Highway and Railroad tunnels design.
2021
Mr. Rudolf is a member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration; he was previously a member of American Concrete Institute (ACI), Portland Cement Association (PCA), American Public Transportation Association (APTA); Rapid Excavation and Tunneling Conference (RETC), American Segmental Bridge Association (ASBI); Pre-stressed Concrete Institute (PCI) and the International Tunneling Association (ITA). Accordingly, throughout the years he wrote a number of papers and delivered presentations on seminars and conferences, domestic and international, etc., that continue to influence others in his field.
2021
Looking forward to the future he plans to remain working full-time, support his grandchildren and write a book of life experience.