U.S. Forest Service Forest Engineer Steve Marchi speaks with visitors at the Eighth Annual Explore Engineering and Surveying Computing and Computer Science event at Umpqua Community College on Thursday. MICHAEL SULLIVAN/The News-Review 9 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org » EXPLORE ENGINEERING, from page 8 » THE CONTINUING SAGA OF ROBERT PLUMB, from page 7 which Mr. Plumb posited that five degrees off plumb still wasn’t plumb. The chainman wasn’t going to relent being tired, scorched, and exhausted and all, and Mr. Plumb began turning that more purple than purple color at the deliberate affront to his character. That purple color must have held some sort of psychic pressure and when that pressure built up high enough, it needed some sort of blowoff valve and that blow-off valve generally came in the form of some sort of physical release like throwing, kicking punching or strange gyrations of the arms which I am told resembled the mating dance of whooping cranes. The object of this physical blow-off valve on this occasion was a cardboard box sitting on the desert floor which was roughly the size and shape of a truck battery. We know the dimensions of the cardboard box to a fair degree of certainty in that the box did, in fact, contain one truck battery. Mr. Plumb took his box kicking duties very seriously and no half measures were good enough for Mr. Plumb, which is a fancy way of saying Mr. Plumb connected his kick with the box well enough to break three bones in his foot. Mr. Plumb immediately dropped to the ground and took corrective action to ensure that mistake would never be repeated by immediately firing his chainman. The chainman, being duly discharged, felt no obligation to stick around and take abuse, so he hopped in the truck and drove off to Vancouver leaving Robert Plumb alone and helpless in the desert to be eaten by coyotes. The chainman got to Vancouver several hours later after sunset, and feeling a bit of compassion (I am not real sure who he felt compassion for—Mr. Plumb or the coyotes, phoned the State Police who eventually rescued Mr. Plumb after several hours of searching the desert at night. I hope lessons were learned by everyone involved, but I fear there are more stories out there in which Mr. Plumb fired someone before it was prudent and safe to do so. The saddest Robert Plumb story which I heard from several sources was that Mr. Plumb was eventually diagnosed with a brain tumor which apparently had been pushing on his turn purple and get mad as a hornet center of his brain (I hope I am not being too scientific for you here). There were unsubstantiated rumors that he was almost a decent person after he had surgery and the tumor was removed. There are two reasons why this saddens me. First, someone with a physical defect should never be the object of ridicule and had we but known, then perhaps a more compassionate view of Robert Plumb might have arisen. The second reason the brain tumor story saddens me is that the duality of the universe needs to be maintained in a sort of Yin versus Yang construct. In other words, if there was no light, you would be blind, but if there was no darkness, you would also be blind. I like to believe in heroes, but they would never exist without an occasional villain. Robert Plumb made every other surveyor look kind, caring, and compassionate in a relative comparison, but now that we know it wasn’t all on Robert Plumb, we all fall back towards the median. This isn’t a good thing for the profession. Finally, I want to assure each and every one of you that no coyotes were harmed in the writing of this column. ◉ Jack Walker, chair of the Geomatics Department at Oregon Institute of Technology, said that’s the importance of these events. “If we didn’t have an event, how would young students find out what they’re interested in?” he said. STEAM provided buses for each district to bring students to the event and teachers encouraged students to attend. Douglas County Partners for Student Success Executive Director Gwen Soderberg-Chase said the STEAM push doesn’t stop at the event. “We want the event to be a springboard to planning for their future,” she said. “Where does it lead them in their career decisions?” While Lanza emphasized that many living-wage jobs are available to students without getting a four-year degree, the event, and STEAM, is about giving students the resources to find futures that match their interests. “One of the most important things I can think of is finding a job you’re happy with.” Lanza said. ◉ You can reach reporter Kate Stringer at 541-957-4208 or kstringer@nrtoday.com.
PLSO Issue 2 2015 March April
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