Tobin was born on May 25, 1903 in Brooklyn, N. Y. He was the son of Katharine A. Moran and Clarence J. Tobin. His father was active in Democratic politics as secretary to John McCooey in the Municipal Civil Service Commission and was a career court reporter in Brooklyn.
Tobin attended local Catholic schools and graduated from St. John's Preparatory School in 1921 and as salutatorian from Holy Cross College in 1925 with a B. A.
In the period 1925-1927, Tobin worked in a Manhattan law firm while attending night law school at Fordham University. He earned his LL. B. degree in 1928.
During his college years, Tobin had shown a talent for organizing people to carry out complex projects.
He developed an interest in the economic development of the New York region, and in 1927 he joined the Port of New York Authority (created by compact between New Jersey and New York State in 1921), as a law clerk.
Tobin was appointed assistant attorney; in 1930 he was named real estate attorney and given responsibility for land condemnation work connected with the Port Authority's early projects--the George Washington Bridge, the Manhattan rail terminal, and the Lincoln Tunnel; in 1934 he began work on tax disputes involving the bistate agency and in 1935 he was appointed an assistant general counsel.
Tobin had shown a talent for organizing people to carry out complex projects. By the mid-1930's he was displaying these traits in his legal work defending the Port Authority against private suits and against the Internal Revenue Service's efforts to tax Port Authority salaries and its bonds. From 1938 to 1942 he led a nationwide campaign to block the Roosevelt administration's attempts to strip all governmental bonds of tax-exempt status. The effort, which was successful, showed Tobin's ability to bring together a coalition of disparate groups and highlighted his tactical skills.
In 1942, despite opposition from those who doubted that Tobin had real administrative talents, the Port Authority's commissioners reached down into the ranks and named him executive director. When Tobin assumed office in July 1942, the Port Authority's operating facilities were limited to two tunnels under the Hudson and four bridges (three to Staten Island). Within a year, Tobin and his aides had identified several new projects that the agency might undertake--regional truck terminals, a large Manhattan bus station, marine terminals in Brooklyn and Manhattan and along the New Jersey shore, and the modernization and expansion of the region's three airports. Tobin then marshaled a staff of experts--in transportation planning, engineering, law, political analysis, finance, and public relations--that would allow the agency to evaluate the feasibility of action in each of these areas and to devise political strategies that could win support from the two states for the agency's plans.
Between 1945 and 1965, all of the planned projects were added to the Port Authority's domain: airports at Newark, La Guardia, and Idlewild (now Kennedy); truck terminals in New York City and Newark; the Manhattan bus terminal; and marine terminals at Newark, Elizabeth, Hoboken, and Brooklyn (although New York City rejected Tobin's offer to modernize city-owned piers). In addition, the agency built a second and then a third tube for the Lincoln Tunnel, which brought more cars and buses into Manhattan; it joined with Robert Moses and the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority to expand the regional highway system; it resisted undertaking commuter rail projects but finally agreed to operate the old Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (now Port Authority Trans Hudson); it urged that a gigantic new airport be constructed in New Jersey; and it built the largest office center in the world, the World Trade Center.
Throughout these decades Tobin was the central figure in setting priorities, in guiding staff analysis, and in challenging skeptics and opponents at legislative hearings and in public meetings. He successfully resisted demands for patronage appointments and favoritism in contracts, emphasizing the importance of "avoiding politics" as a crucial ingredient in his agency's work.
Because the Port Authority did not have taxing power but instead relied on income from tolls and rents, Tobin emphasized the need for each project to be self-supporting; this standard permitted him to use the rallying cry of "businesslike efficiency" in attracting support from the press and civic leaders, in fending off demands that the agency take on deficit-producing projects, and in persuading his own executives to operate airports, marine terminals, and other enterprises at high levels of effectiveness.
Tobin's concept of public responsibility extended beyond narrow cost-benefit analysis, however; he encouraged his staff to devise innovative programs for tenant relocation and for affirmative action.
Tobin remained as the agency's executive director until 1972, but his final years were filled more with conflict than with achievements. He continued to urge that a new airport be built in New Jersey, but that project was blocked. He faced increasing demands that Port Authority revenues be used to meet growing deficits on the region's commuter railroads, and his firm resistance cost him political support in both state capitals. The immense size and cost of the World Trade Center turned some supporters of the agency's vision into doubters.
In December 1971, Tobin decided that the strain of the job overwhelmed the sense of challenge that he had enjoyed for nearly thirty years in office, and he resigned. In the next several years, Tobin served as an unpaid adviser with the Executive Service Corps, providing managerial advice to government agencies in the Far East, Israel, and other areas. He died of cancer in Manhattan.
Austin Joseph Tobin was an American businessman who served as the executive director of the Port of New York Authority, the precursor to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, from 1942 until 1972. Tobin is widely known for authorizing the construction of the original World Trade Center, which was destroyed during the September 11 attacks in 2001. In 1966, Tobin received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York. " In 1978, the Port Authority decided to rename the outdoor plaza at the World Trade Center, in his honor, as the Austin J. Tobin Plaza. The centerpiece of the plaza was The Sphere, a 25-foot tall bronze sculpture designed by Fritz Koenig. The plaza was destroyed during the September 11 attacks in 2001, and is now occupied on the same site by the National September 11 Memorial.
On December 9, 1925, he married Geraldine Thomasina Farley; they had two children.
Tobin's first wife died in 1966. On June 29, 1967, he married Rosaleen C. Skehan, a lawyer for the Port Authority; they had no children.
