PLSO Oregon Surveyor

17 / 22

17
Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon |
introduced to all the surveyors attending and was
made to feel welcome. He also made sure I didn’t
miss any chapter meetings from that time forward.
He encouraged me to become involved in the organi-
zation and learn from it. Early on Orv told me to “keep
quiet and listen to everything people had to say and
I’ll let you know when to start asking questions.” What
he was trying to teach was that when you first start
out practicing surveying you may think you know it all
but you are really just starting to learn. I would hope
all of us have come to understand that we are always
learning and will never know it all.
Orv was my mentor throughout my career. The fact
that I could ask him any question and he would
advise me on how to proceed will be greatly missed.
It seems like I find myself on a daily basis asking the
question, “How would Orv want me to handle this?”
I am very proud to have known and worked for Orv
and very saddened that we have lost a true profes-
sional. I hope we can all take away from this that we
should always strive to become a better person and
professional as we proceed in life and ask ourselves,
“do the founders of PLSO approve on how we are
moving forward with the organization?”
Here is a link to the obituary in the Eugene Registered Guard newspaper:
car-caswell&pid=181801793
Written by Tim Fassbender, PLS 2199
In Memoriam: Orville Caswell
Orv, the Professional
I had the great honor and privilege to have worked
for Orv for over 10 years. During this time, I witnessed
and was taught how to be a professional. Orv’s daily
practice was not to “settle” on the easy solution
when the truth was still not answered. He would
commonly tell me that “when you make a decision
it best be correct so when you go to bed you can
fall asleep instead of lying there and worrying about
what you did.” This lead to the running joke we had,
“how many times would you go out to a job to find
that one monument that could help.” The most
important practice that Orv taught me was “never say
you couldn’t find the monument and find out later
someone else did.” His survey practice was based
upon the fact that it does not matter if you make
any money on the job, as long as the work is done
correctly. He was always willing to take time out of his
work to help any surveyor with their survey problems.
This would be a common theme during many PLSO
Midwest Chapter meetings, where someone would
bring up a problem they are having and ask if anyone
had any ideas for a solution. This practice was a result
of Orv’s habit of discussing survey issues openly
among other surveyors, thus raising the level of the
survey profession in the community.
When I first started working for Orv, I mentioned that
I was interested in the PLSO organization and wanted
to know more about it. He immediately invited me
to a chapter meeting where he made sure I was
Orv Caswell (center) flanked by Don Peel and Clyde Randall A gift from Tim Fassbender to Orv Caswell, a plaque with 50
quarters and images of Orv’s first and last filed surveys in
Lane County.
Read more about Orville on the next page