AALE Announces Death of Board Member
Winter | 2017/2018
It is with great sadness that the American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE)
announces the death of Board member John B. ‘Jack’ Tieder, Jr. who
passed away on December 3, 2017 following a period of illness. Jack has
served on the AALE Board since 2010. Most recently he was a member of
the Finance Committee. Jack’s leadership, broad business experience, and
dedication to liberal education and life-long-learning will be sorely
missed by AALE and its members. Following is the Memoriam published by Watt, Tieder, Hoffar and Fitzgerald LLC, the law firm Jack founded and served as senior partner.
John B. Tieder, Jr.
May 8, 1946 – December 3, 2017
We mourn the passing of our dear friend, mentor, founding partner and oracle of construction law, Jack Tieder, this past week. Jack opened the doors of the firm forty years ago and crafted the very foundation of our construction, international and government contracts practice. Under his guidance and example, the firm rose to prominence to become one of the elite firms in our area of practice both in the United States and throughout the world. His indefatigable spirit, intellectual curiosity, commitment to the profession and exuberant wanderlust advanced the development of construction law around the globe. Jack had an influential presence in every major construction-related legal organization from the American College of Construction Lawyers to the International Bar Association, the London Court of International Arbitration, the International Academy of Construction Lawyers and many more. Over the last four decades, he personally trained, tested and challenged scores of attorneys in our firm. He then would board a plane to lecture eager lawyers in Eastern Europe, Russia, China and the Middle East. He pursued this passion right up to the end of his life. Attorneys, clients, and consultants from around the world join us in sorrow. Many of you may receive our firm’s newsletter and are familiar with Jack’s frequent articles bringing to life exotic locations from his travels. He was a brilliant, demanding, learned, and creative attorney with a thirst for life and a sense of humor that shines through in his writings. These qualities also combined to make him one of the world’s most formidable opponents in any legal contest. In recent years, Jack gravitated towards serving on arbitration panels and dispute review boards on many large, complicated construction projects. Regardless of the outcome of those matters, his thoughtful, well-reasoned decisions typically were lauded by the participating parties. In sum, we and the world have lost one of the paragons of construction law. We can only remember his teachings, his discipline, his spirit and his exacting standards and then carry them forward into the firm’s fifth decade. Please join us throughout this coming year in celebrating Jack’s legacy and remembering how much he contributed to the practice of construction law, literally, everywhere.