Gerald C. O'Brien*

The son of Irish immigrants, Gerald O'Brien earned five cents a day cleaning stables when he was age seven. His family suffered from poverty during the Great Depression, so O'Brien worked days and nights, mixing school sessions with various jobs, including switchman on a railroad. At nine, he threshed wheat for 75 cents a day. By age 14, he had become a bricklayer, and at 17, he owned his own construction company. In addition, he restored Indian villages in Mesa Verde.

After four years of serving in the U.S. Navy in Korea, O'Brien joined the Wrecking Corporation of America for $75 a week. Twelve years later, he had worked through the ranks to become vice president. He eventually purchased the company. At 38, he was president and chairman of the North American Development Corporation and owned eight other firms that operated nationwide, as well as in Canada.

In New York City, his most famous demolition jobs included the Old Metropolitan Opera House, the Times Tower, the Polo Grounds, Grand Central Palace, and 24 pavilions built for the 1964 World's Fair.