PLSO The Oregon Surveyor Sept/Oct 2020

16 Vol. 43, No. 5 The Oregon Surveyor  |  F estus Obijiofor didn’t intend to turn his education into a long and successful career with the Oregon Department of Transportation, but that’s what happened. After 33 years with ODOT as a surveyor for roads and highways, the now-64-year-old is looking to retire next year. Festus Obijiofor is a PLS and senior sur- veyor in the cadastral group for ODOT Region 1, which covers the Portland met- ro area. He started working for ODOT in June 1987 after graduating from college. Obijiofor is originally from Nigeria, and came to the United States in 1979 to study. “I started doing an associate degree pro- gram in civil engineering at Mt. Hood Community College and I had done four or five surveying classes,” he recalls. “I completed that in June 1981 then I de- cided to go to Portland State University for the full civil engineering program but some of my classes didn’t transfer over.” As a civil engineering student, Obijiofor was required to take surveying classes. “Even though you’re not a surveyor, they want you to be exposed to surveying so you know how some of the data you are using was created,” he says. Family needs took over for a while, and then in 1986 Obijiofor ran into a former classmate whoworked for ODOT andwho told him that ODOT was hiring. “She told me where to apply and the rest is histo- ry,” he says with a laugh. After he started with ODOT and began using surveying data more often, he realized he enjoyed surveying enough to make it a career. He was lucky and privileged to be mentored by Ron Singh, former ODOT Chief of Sur- veys, who taught him a lot and was, at the time, spearheading efforts toward modernizing ODOT’s surveying methods, instrumentation, and practice. “Surveying work is outdoors, which is awesome,” he says. “Some aspects of it are like a treasure hunt. You look at old records trying to retrace the steps of an- other surveyor, what they did, what they were thinking, why they did what they did and how they did it. You check all the re- cords you think they used to create that survey that you’re looking at. Sometimes you are not sure what you are getting un- til you start digging.” One experience that stood in hismindwas his first day at ODOT, he was hired towork in the office 95 percent of the time and 5 percent in the field. When he showed up on his first day, the assistant manag - er at the time decided to send him out in the field to work with the field crew. He was not dressed for field work—he was in slacks, dress shirt, and dress shoes. When he got to the field, the task was to do cross sections across US Highway 26 east of Government Camp). The cross sections were from the highway up and down the slope embankment, 300 feet each way, repeated every 50 feet along the highway. He found out that navigat- ing the steep slope embankment in dress shoes was no easy task. His slacks and dress shirt were shredded by blackber- ries, but he was undeterred and made it through the day. For Obijiofor, participating in building our country’s highways and byways is its own reward. “I’m helping physically with the development of counties and cities and I thought that was interesting,” he says. Obijiofor could leave ODOT and go to work for a private company, but that doesn’t appeal to him. “My life has always been as a public servant,” he says. “I think that’s where my calling is. I enjoy seeing the work you are doing for the taxpayer and the results you are getting.” He originally chose to settle in the Port- land area from Nigeria because he had a friend who was already in the area. He has a family of two adult sons and a daughter, all staying in the area. He played football (what we call soccer) for many years, and lately, he spends a lot of his non-work time supporting a Nigerian cul- tural organization called Nzuko Ndi Igbo (find them on Facebook at https://www. facebook.com/nninw.org ). The group is named for the Igbo people of Nigeria, an ethnic group from the southeast- ern part of the country, and works to provide opportunities and cultural con- nection for Nigerians residing in Oregon and southern Washington. The group is working to raise funds to build a multi- cultural art center. “I enjoy working with the Nigerian com- munity quite a lot,” he says. “I am trying to help the young ones, mentor them.” Who knows, perhaps one of the young ones Festus Obijiofor mentors will go on to have a decades-long career with ODOT, or as a land surveyor somewhere else, just as he has enjoyed.  x SPOTLIGHT Member By Vanessa Salvia Festus Obijiofor