PLSO Oregon Surveyor JanFeb 2017

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Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon |
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By David Williams, PLS
Chairman Comments
From the PLSO Chair
As your 2017 PLSO Chair, I would like to take this
opportunity to introduce myself. Hopefully this will
give you some insight on my thoughts and decision
making. Like many of you I didn’t originally start out
to become a surveyor. However, through fate or
whatever you want to call it I was lucky enough to
spend most of my working career in the practice of
surveying. The first employer I had in this business
told me that “surveying is as pleasant a profession as
one could choose.” At the time, I didn’t have the life
experience or knowledge to understand his statement.
40 years later I feel very fortunate to have been able to
follow in his footsteps.
I was raised in an entrepreneurial environment. My
father and uncle ran a dairy farm in Tillamook County
that was originally acquired by my great grandfather.
As opportunities presented themselves, they also
dabbled in mink ranching and logging. Much to the
disappointment of my father, I didn’t have much of a
liking for milking cows.
After High School, I attended Oregon State University
where I received my BS in Mechanical Engineering
Technology. The year I graduated college the economy
was in a bit of a downturn. Very few recruiters showed
up on campus so I eventually ended up with another
group of largely OSU grads bidding on Forest Service
contracts thinning trees. As it turns out a couple of
these fellows were skiers. They suggested that if I
could save a $1,000 I would be welcome to come to
Bend, Oregon with their group and ski all winter. It
sounded much better than cutting down small trees
in the snow. At this point, I am sure my parents were
wondering why they sent me to college for 5 years.
However, as luck would have it, I eventually got a
job on the Alaska pipeline managing a couple of
construction camps in Prudhoe Bay, north of the
arctic circle. Great money but a little remote. Once
the pipeline started winding down, I came back to
Bend for what I thought was going to be a short visit.
The father of one of my skiing friends who was a land
developer said that his engineer was looking to hire
a young engineer and that I should apply. The short
story is that I applied, got the job and never went back
to Alaska.
Once I started working in the land development arena,
I discovered that I really liked the surveying portion
of the business more than civil engineering. I found
that I got a lot of satisfaction
researching properties,
their histories, and resolving
boundaries. At the height of the
business, I oversaw all the survey
calculations, running field crews,
and managing most of the clients.
Then came the early 1980’s and the firm basically
closed down because of economic conditions.
At this point, I needed a job and a ski pass so a friend
of mine got me a job on the weekends working on a
chairlift at Mt. Bachelor. Life was good! However, true
to form, things were about to change. In the spring,
a volunteer ski patrolman who happened to be one
of the owners of the largest engineering firm in Bend
stopped at the lift shack to warm up. He asked me
what the heck I was doing working as a lift attendant.
I explained my situation and he said I should apply for
an opening at his firm running their survey computer
system and managing the field crews. Again, I had
another job in the business.
I worked for this firm for 6 years. It was a larger
company, with approximately 60 employees at the
time, had a great staff with very talented people. There
were a large variety of clients, both private and public.
During my tenure, I learned a lot.
However, after 6 years, an opportunity presented itself.
I guess this is where my entrepreneurial genes came to
the surface. Gary Hickman and I resigned from the firm
and formed Hickman, Williams & Associates. His motto
was “Hang on to your Saddle Horn.” His words couldn’t
have been more prophetic. We hit the ground running
and never looked back. In the early 90’s Gary moved to
the Portland metro area to start a branch office. Within
a year or two, Gary and I determined that we each
wanted to take the company in different directions.
Thus, I purchased his share of the company and took
on new partners. Gary continued with his practice
in the Portland area. I believe this was the correct
decision for both of us, and I am proud to count Gary
as one of my friends today.
From that point on, I was President of Hickman,
Williams & Associates (HWA). The main services the
company offers are surveying, civil engineering and
land planning. My philosophy was to assemble a small
group of people that had good skills, could work well