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A transportation authority in planning, management, operations and project development, Dr. John Dyer died May 3 in Glendale, Calif. He was 66.



From 1973 to 1981, Dyer served as chief executive officer of the Transportation Administration of Metropolitan Dade County.



He later moved to Los Angeles, where from 1981 to 1988 he served as general manager of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, the predecessor agency to the L.A County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Under Dyer’s management, ridership increased 33 percent in three years.



Dyer also is credited with securing funds to build the Los Angeles Metro Rail subway, and planning and operating the Olympics Transportation System for the 1984 Summer Olympic games held in Los Angeles.



"He had boundless energy and was very persuasive in his championing of mass transit," said former Los Angeles County Supervisor Edmund Edelman in a prepared statement. "He was a remarkable leader and a great visionary who saw the big picture on the creation of our subway system."



Dyer also served as interim CEO for the Los Angeles-to-Pasadena Metro Blue Line Construction Authority, responsible for starting construction on the light-rail project.



In 1999, he joined Parsons Brinckerhoff Consult as principal in charge of transit planning. At the time of his death, he was involved in designing and managing transportation systems for the Orange County Transportation Authority, and cities of Nashville and Austin, Texas. Dyer also worked on the SkyTrain Rail System in Vancouver, British Columbia.



He is survived by his wife, Beth.