Eugene H. "Gene" Boeke Jr., a onetime jobsite water boy at Beers Construction Co., Atlanta, who became vice president of the firm and its successor, Beers Skanska, as well as a nationally recognized expert in reinforced-concrete construction, died on Sept. 29 in Roswell, Ga. He was 86.

Boeke supervised construction of numerous major high-rise buildings in Atlanta and the Southeast. He also co-authored a 1980 book on advances in construction methods for the American Concrete Institute (ACI), a key concrete technology advocacy group based in Farmington Hills, Mich.

Boeke was a vice president of the American Society of Concrete Construction (now the American Society of Concrete Contractors), and he was cited by the group in 1992 for lifetime achievement.

ACI also cited Boeke in 1988 for best-practice innovations and in 1995 for distinguished service.