Jeffrey Zogg, Longtime AGC Executive, Dies at 61

Jeffrey J. Zogg, a leader of New York state general contractors for more than two decades and an activist in the national Associated General Contractors organization, died Oct. 24 in Delmar, N.Y., after a long battle with sarcoma, a form of cancer.

Zogg served in that role since 2008, when the chapter was formed following the merger of the General Building Contractors of New York State (GBC) and AGC’s New York State Chapter, which represented heavy and highway construction firms. The combined chapter is now AGC’s sixth largest U.S. chapter.

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He previously served as executive director of the building chapter since 1987 and in other capacities since 1971. The chapter says that among other duties, Zogg reviewed project bidding documents “for conformance with good practice and the law, a service of the GBC unique in the U.S.”

The executive, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., and son of a construction superintendent, also was active on numerous national AGC committees and is a former chairman of its Executive Leadership Council.

“He loved this industry and was proud to serve as a mentor not only to the staff here at AGC but to anyone who reached out to him,” the group said in a statement.

Zogg was a frequent spokesman for contractors on legal and political issues in New York and nationally, including those in the open shop. He spearheaded the 1995 appeal by state contractors of a state supreme court ruling that upheld use of project labor agreements for public works (ENR 1/2-1/9 1995, p. 12). Zogg also was among AGC chapter managers in the Northeast that protested in 1988, the national organization management style as being “autocratic and unresponsive,” according to an ENR article (ENR 3/24/88, p.13).