Bernie Carpenter

Bernie Carpenter worked for the Ithaca Community Transit System in 1962 as a bus driver. Community Transit System was Ithaca's new municipal system which succeeded a failing private bus line. In 1962 Bernie was a popular driver who was later assigned supervisory responsibilities as Head Bus Driver. Over the next 30 years he worked his way up to Acting Superintendent of Public Works. From 1974-1976 Bernie worked to recreate Ithaca's bus system with a new route design, system name, logo, graphics, system maps and schedules, tokens, fare collection system, new buses and passenger shelters. "Ithaca Transit" was unveiled in 1977 with bold red, white and blue graphics. Between the years of 1974 and 1983 ridership more than doubled.

Bernie was a showman in the best possible sense - a visible community advocate and spokesman of the virtues of professional transit service. Ithaca Transit ran a go-car bus in city parades and proudly showed off new buses to the media. Bernie was a strong supporter of the New York Public Transportation Safety Board and was proud that Ithaca Transit was a model of small system safety planning and operations. In 1985, Ithaca Transit won APTA's top safety award from a field of 176 systems in the small urban class of 30,000 to 100,000 people.

Bernie supported the growth of transit service outside the City of Ithaca in Tompkins County. He encouraged the city to partner with Tompkins County, Cornell University and other municipalities to subsidize new suburban service and to coordinate with new rural services. From 1989-1992, Bernie represented the City in partnership with Tompkins County and Cornell University to design and construct the Ithaca Tompkins Transit Center, which was reorganized and consolidated under TCAT in 1998.

Bernie was also a founding member of New York Public Transit Managers' Association (the predecessor to NYPTA), served on the Board of Directors and in the offices of Vice President and President. Bernie was a strong advocate for State Transit Operating Assistance funding, state dedicated capital funding and enlarging NYPTA membership to include regional authorities and the MTA.

Bernie passed away in December of 2003. He was inducted in 2004.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Dennis served as the Executive Director of CDTA for 22 years, making him one of the longest tenured chief executives in the transit industry. He oversaw the creation, development and continual refinement of CDTA into a four-county regional transportation authority. He developed a demand response para-transit system for people with disabilities called STAR (Special Transit Available by Request). This service was in place and operational, a full 8 years before the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Dennis implemented the CDTA Swiper bus pass program and the complementary Corporate Program. Close to 40% of peak hour customers use prepayment, with the corporate program having close to 100 member companies. The program was recognized with an APTA ADWheel Award in 1994 and an American Marketing Association Award in 1995.

Using the Swiper program as a base, Dennis developed the successful Jobs Access Programs, designed to connect people to jobs. The program was recognized for its effectiveness in 2001 with an APTA Welfare to Work Award.

Dennis oversaw the construction of two new operating garages and the renovation and expansion of CDTA's Albany headquarters. He also oversaw the construction of the new Rensselaer Rail Station. The $53.1 million facility was one of the most complicated public projects in recent memory, consisting of five projects within a project, including a new station, a new Herrick Street Bridge, a new parking garage, new boarding platforms and extensive track and signal systems. This new regional gateway serves over 650,000 rail customers annually and is the 11th busiest station in the Amtrak network. In addition to this station, he also initiated the planning and development process for the new Saratoga Springs Train Station.

An active and energetic member of NYPTA since its inception, he has held leadership positions in the organization for many years and was called on to represent NYPTA and its members in many ways throughout his career. He continues to be an advocate for the transit industry, its employees and our customers in his retirement.

Dennis garnered tremendous respect from colleagues, employees and transit customers for his sense of fairness, his genuine desire to solve problems and to improve transit service for people. The readers of METRO Magazine recognized his efforts in 2000, when they voted him one of the 10 Most Respected General Managers in North America. He was inducted in 2004.

Raymond Murphy

Raymond Murphy was a graduate of Manhattan College, and United States Naval Officers Candidate School. He served as a Lieutenant Commander on the USS Newport News. Ray Murphy was an executive with the Fifth Avenue Coach Company in New York City when he started his own bus operation in Westchester.  He purchased Westchester Street Transportation in the late 1960's. The Bernacchia brothers, who had taken over their father's bus and street railway business in Yonkers, were already acquiring a number of smaller operations around Westchester when Ray Murphy joined them in 1969. By combining their vision, funds, skills, resources, franchises, and bus operations, the new team created a strong base for the expanding and acquiring of other bus companies, and improving service to the public.

Ray served as the company's finance manager. The company quickly became Westchester County's premiere private transportation company serving approximately 33 million passengers. Today Liberty Lines Inc. employs approximately 1000 people who service and maintain the equipment and operate routes in both Westchester County and New York City. Raymond supported NYPTA since its inception, by attending and supporting all conferences and serving on numerous conference committees. Ray passed away in February of 2003. He was inducted in 2004.

Henry Peyrebrune

Henry Peyrebrune retired in 1995 as First Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation, after 33 years of service.

Before that Henry served as Assistant Commissioner for Transportation Policy and Public Transportation at NYSDOT. Here he made contributions to the Department's programs in planning, mass transit, aviation, railroads, trucks and ports. He oversaw economic regulation, transportation policy development and implementation.

He also served as Program Associate in the Governor's Office where he advised the Governor on programs in transportation, environment and public recreation.

Henry has attended Purdue University, Yale University and the University of Minnesota, where he received his doctorate in Transportation.

He has served as a guest lecturer at the Rockefeller Institute for Public Policy and as an Adjunct Professor at Union College.

Since retiring Henry is active with the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management and is a Visiting Scholar at New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.

He has served as an Independent Transportation Consultant for numerous state, national and international projects. He has many accomplishments in transit including serving as an independent consultant to USDOT to act as Special Advisor to the Minister of Communications in Saudi Arabia in 1995.

He is married to Sally Warboys Peyrebrune and has five children. He was inducted in 2004.

Norm Schneider

Norm Schneider's career spanned nearly 33 years in state service. While over 20 of those years were with NYSDOT, Norm has also had the opportunity to serve as a Program Associate in the Governor's Office and as a Deputy Commissioner in the Department of Motor Vehicles. To each of those endeavors he brought a level of energy, enthusiasm and professionalism that earned him the respect of his colleagues.

Norm joined the Department in June 1967 as a Junior Engineer, having just graduated from Clarkson University with a degree in Civil Engineering. He was one of the first six to go through a new internship program with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to earn a Masters Degree in Transportation Engineering while working for the Department.
Norm was a key member of the task force that created the Department's first Environmental Action Plan. This experience helped hone his skills in finding practical solutions to complex problems and in bringing together diverse and sometimes opposing interests to a common end.

In the mid 1970's Norm assisted the Department in crafting a new State Transportation Operating Assistance Program (STOA) to provide much needed operating subsidies to the MTA and numerous public and private transit services around the state. That program has gone through many changes over the past 20+ years, but continues today at the level of $1.6 billion a year.

From the late 1970's to the mid 1990's Norm was directly involved in all major transportation legislation including transportation bond issues and the development of five year highway programs with the legislature, all of which were important to this agency. This was accomplished as a part of the Planning, Development and Transit Divisions and then subsequently as Program Associate in the Governor's Office.

One key piece of safety legislation Norm helped see through the legislative process was Article 19-A of the Vehicle and Traffic Law which set up new higher standards for the drivers of buses in commercial service and the drivers of school buses. Article 19-A has been modified and strengthened many times over the past 20 years. It continues New York State's record of having the most stringent requirements on bus drivers of any state in the country.

Subsequently Norm was asked to serve as a Deputy Commissioner in the Department of Motor Vehicles. He helped that agency re-invent itself and most importantly he was instrumental in forging a close working relationship between DMV and NYSDOT on matters regarding safety.

Returning to the Department in the early 1990's Norm helped guide the Department through the federal Clean Air Act requirements. Through his efforts the Department remained eligible for billions of Federal Highway funds while avoiding onerous transportation requirements. He also assisted the Policy Group in the support of congressional staff putting together ISTEA in a manner that was favorable to New York State. Following ISTEA Norm helped in the establishment of the first dedicated transportation fund in New York in 1992.

When Commissioner Boardman consolidated rail and commercial vehicle safety functions into a new Passenger and Freight Safety Division, Norm was asked to be the new Division's first director. Under Norm's direction the Division saw improved Bus Industry Safety Performance and Vehicle Safety Regulations were rewritten for the first time in 30 years. During this time the Division also began to implement the automation of commercial vehicle safety.

Norm helped a multi agency Drowsy Driver Task Force to look closer at the issue in New York State. Through his leadership the task force was able to provide information that was directly relevant to the Department's program to upgrade and modernize rest areas, first in Region 1 and then elsewhere in the state. This effort was recognized by USDOT as a model program for other states to emulate.

Norm was instrumental in developing a diesel emission testing program jointly with NYS DMV, NYS DEC, and NYSP. Required to satisfy federal requirements, Norm helped craft a program that builds on the Department's ongoing roadside safety inspection and semi-annual bus safety inspection programs to meet the overall requirement in a way that is acceptable to industry.

Norm Schneider has consistently made a difference throughout his career. It is through his adherence to the Department's core values of Integrity, Customer Service, Partnership, Teamwork, People and Excellence that Norm has been so successful. He was inducted in 2004.

Joseph Veselovsky

Joe began his career with the MTA Long Island Bus on March 26, 1973 as a Mail Clerk. Through hard work and dedication, his talents were soon recognized and he rose quickly through the ranks. He held several positions in the financial area including Manager of Accounting, Assistant Comptroller and Director of Capital and Operating Budgets. When he retired, he was Assistant Vice President of Financial and Strategic Planning.

Joe was an integral part of the management team at LI Bus throughout his career. Executive management invariably sought his expertise to address complex transit financial issues. However, within LI Bus Joe was equally respected for his willingness to always assist co-workers and his desire to cultivate his staff members by challenging them to ascend to the next level.

Within the New York Public Transit Association (NYPTA) and the state transit community, Joe is probably best known for his countless hours of tedious analytic work that helped reshape statewide funding allocations. In the early 1990's Joe began the statewide effort to obtain projections on capital needs from member agencies and compare them to available funding. His needs analysis led to one of the first ever state-funded non-MTA capital programs.

Joe's accomplishments have had an impact on every member transit agency within NYPTA.

Joe undertook a similar analytic effort for State Transit Operating Assistance. He calculated the amount required to fund the formula-based systems under the existing passenger/miles formula and benchmarked it against state operating funds in the state budget. He helped demonstrate that the state account had sufficient revenue to permit a formula increase. For the balance of his career, Joe played an important advisory role on state formula spending to the NYPTA Board and helped establish a strong working bond that endures to this day between NYSDOT and NYPTA on formula allocations.

While working at the MTA Long Island Bus, Joe attended Suffolk Community College and then transferred to Hofstra University. While at Hofstra, he earned a Bachelor of Accounting degree in 1980 and later took courses toward an MBA in Management.

Joe was married to Mary Ellen Young. They met at Long Island Bus and had two children, Lisa (18) and Joseph Jr. (16). Joe passed away in the fall of 2003. He was inducted in 2004.