News and notes from Reston (tm).

Friday, April 30, 2021

Hats Off: Reston's Second Employee Dies at 93


Hats off for Glenn William Saunders Jr., who was Bob Simon's second hire after he had the crazy idea of taking the proceeds from the sale of Carnegie Hall to build a new planned community in the woods of Virginia. Notably, he outlasted Simon's tenure as Reston continued to develop:

He was the second employee hired by Simon as vice president of planning, engineering and construction. As a civil engineer, Glenn was intrigued by this opportunity to plan, design and build a new city from scratch.
In 1967, Gulf Oil Corporation took over full operational control and financial responsibility of the development and formed a subsidiary Gulf Reston, Inc. and Glenn was appointed executive vice president. In 1971, with Reston enjoying great success, Gulf formed another subsidiary, Gulf Oil Real Estate Development Company, to advise them on various real estate matters around the world and Glenn was appointed as its executive vice president.

Saunders, who had also served as Fairfax's city manager, was 95 when he died earlier this month in Florida. Here's part of what he said during a presentation about Reston to the county's zoning board in 1962 (click to enlarge): 

And there's this:


More information about Saunders here.


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