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Terry Mulcahy first recipient of ProRail's Rail Passenger Award Former State Transportation Secretary honored Jan. 24 1/24/2004

Terry Mulcahy

Terrence D. Mulcahy, a former Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, is the first recipient of ProRail's Friend of the Rail Passenger Award.

The award is named after a ProRail cofounder, Patricia Robbins, who died in 2002. It was presented to Mulcahy in ProRail ceremonies Jan. 24 in Middleton, when the award also was unveiled for the first time for its first public showing.

For more on the award and Robbins, click here.

Mulcahy, a professional engineer, was appointed Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) in April of 2000.

He has over 45 years' experience in the department, having served in a number of technical and management positions, including most recently as the Deputy Secretary.

He has served in a number of key leadership positions for transportation, both in Wisconsin and nationally.

While Secretary, he achieved national prominence in promoting the integration of passenger rail into the nation’s transportation system through leadership positions with the States for Passenger Rail Coalition and the High Speed Ground Transportation Association.

He chaired the AASHTO (American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials) standing committee on Highway Traffic Safety, and also served on AASHTO’s Standing Committee on Aviation. He was vice-chair of the Wisconsin Land Council, a public-private board examining land use issues in the state.

Mulcahy achieved the rank of Major General in the U.S. Army Reserves, and served as the ranking Army Reserve General Officer and senior engineer for the U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf War.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin, a Master of Science degree in Public Administration from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

He is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and of the U.S. Army War College.

In his remarks introducing Mulcahy, ProRail President and former WisDOT employe Keith Plasterer said:

"In the summer of 1986, I attended the national High Speed Rail Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Among the attendees was a former DOT secretary, then a Maryland consultant, looking for new business for his firm.

"When he saw me he responded 'I didn’t know Wisconsin was sending anyone to this convention'. I replied 'They didn’t. I sent myself'. My wildest dream was that such a convention would ever be held in Wisconsin.

"In 2001 the national High Speed Ground Transporta- tion/Maglev convention was held in Milwaukee and was sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Secretary Terry Mulcahy was the primary force behind that event being in Milwaukee.

"My last five years at WisDOT were spent working on the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. This was the nine state effort to restore passenger train service on nine lines radiating from Chicago.

"Terry took a unique interest in that project. After some initial meetings in some expensive downtown Chicago hotels the meetings shifted to a less costly but adequate conference room Amtrak had at Chicago Union Station.

"The first meeting Terry attended there he had to ask by cell phone, when he was near down town Chicago, 'Where is Chicago Union Station?'

"Terry came to that and several other meetings at CUS. No other DOT secretary or deputy secretary from the other eight states displayed he commitment that Terry did. He was always seeking a way to make the MWRRI work.

"He could have retired from DOT with very good pension years before he did. Only after he learned that for the third time that the U.S. Congress had almost, but not, provided funding for high-speed rail did he retire at the end of 2001.

"For that commitment we honor him this morning."