Vertical Transportation Handbook, 4th Edition

George Strakosch has been an ELEVATOR WORLD consultant and member of its board of directors. He operated a private consulting practice in the early 1990s. Strakosch entered the elevator industry as a construction helper in 1946 at Otis, advancing to mechanic and then adjuster. In 1953, he entered the Otis Management Training Program and advanced from sales representative to sales engineering assistant. Appointed chief application engineer in 1960, Strakosch worked on the World Trade Center project in New York City. In 1967, he was appointed manager of special installations and oversaw elevator installations at the Kennedy Space Center for the Apollo program. He became a senior project manager in 1972 at Otis and joined Jaros Baum and Bolles Consulting Engineers (JB&B) in 1977. After retiring from JB&B in 1987, Strakosch joined EW as director of education. Having served on numerous American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) committees, Strakosch became a recipient of ASME's Safety Codes and Standards Medal in 1998. He has also been honored by the NAESA International, the Chicago Elevator Association and the National Association of Elevator Contractors, having received the William C. Sturgeon Distinguished Service Award from the latter in 1997.

Best known in the industry as longtime editor of ELEVATOR WORLD, Caporale was an industry leader who hailed from the Bronx and began his lifelong career in New York City (NYC) in 1964 as a draftsman at the engineering firm of Jaros Baum & Bolles. There, he advanced to the position of associate and was the principal designer, field engineer and inspector on some of the world’s largest vertical-transportation and materials-handling projects, including the original World Trade Center in NYC and the Sears (now Willis) Tower in Chicago. In 1990, he joined DTM Elevator Consulting and Drafting Services, where he was director of engineering. In 1991, he joined Syska and Hennessy Engineers as vice president and director of the Transport System Group, where he continued to manage numerous elevator and escalator installation and modernization projects throughout the U.S. He began working for Elevator World, Inc. in 1993 as associate editor. He was appointed editor in 1997, a post he held until March 2014, when he retired and was given the honor of editor emeritus. Never one for idleness, he continued to work, operating his own firm RSC Consulting; serving as editor of the NAESA International newsletter Progress; joining the team of forensic analysts and technical experts at Unified Investigations and Sciences, Inc.; and working with magazine/online news source High Rise Facilities as part of its editorial staff.