Growing up in rural Callicoon, NY, where not much happened unless you made it, I was an explorer from a young age. Curious about how things worked, I began my engineering career by taking apart broken spring-loaded pens, fixing them and putting them back together again for classmates. I learned about how people worked, too, by helping my father run his drug store. Both these experiences would shape my career path, where I’d find that good design requires more than springs and screws; good design has people in mind.
Curious about how things worked, I began my engineering career by taking apart broken spring-loaded pens, fixing them and putting them back together again for classmates.
My path to becoming a professional engineer involved a few serendipitous detours. After a two-year stint as a chemical engineering major at Clarkson University, I accepted a position at a recently constructed wastewater treatment plant in my hometown. There I was exposed to a whole new world—the wastewater treatment process was fascinating. For the next eight years, I embraced a medley of hands-on wastewater challenges, from operating the local wastewater treatment plant, operating an experimental sludge recycling facility and operating a lime stabilization Class A Biosolids facility to performing video inspections and sewer hydro jetting, operating heavy equipment to install sewers and septic systems and troubleshooting electro/mechanical pump stations. During that exciting time, I met my wife, and we started a family.
After years in the field, I decided that I should go back to college and finish my engineering degree, so I began attending Binghamton University with a major in mechanical engineering. Returning to school after so much time had passed was daunting, but I persevered, and I soon found that anything is possible with dedication and support. My wife worked nights and watched our three children during the day, sometimes with the help of family and friends, while I focused on my studies. With their help, I was able to graduate and land a job in product development at an electronics equipment manufacturer in Binghamton, NY.
During my seven years in product development, I watched the theory I’d studied materialize into a calculated symphony of minutiae—the devil is indeed in the details when it comes to engineering. But real-world engineering is unpredictable; I discovered the true nature of design is anticipating unexpected circumstances and deciding how to manage them before they occur. I also learned the value of teamwork and diversity in coming up with resourceful solutions. The most successful projects incorporate many different points of view and a holistic approach.
I gained valuable insight in the manufacturing industry, and with it an urge to return to my roots. I applied for a position as a water and wastewater design engineer for a consulting engineering firm, and there I was able to merge all my experiences to really drive my career forward. I felt at home working with the plant operators, plant superintendents and DPW commissioners when designing and implementing treatment plant projects, and I took pride in making the day-to-day operations more efficient, more reliable and less onerous for the operators. My design philosophy comes from an operator’s point of view. Operators have to live with the decisions made by engineers every day, so as an operator at heart I understand my duty as an engineer is to design for them.
In five years at that firm, I earned my PE license and the privilege of serving as plant engineer for our municipal clients. It was an honor to serve those clients and work alongside my future business partner, Jason. We would often talk about what it would be like to have our own engineering firm. And here we are!
Still an explorer, I’m excited to set forth on this new adventure and build our business from the ground up. Jason and I are looking forward to serving our clients the best way we know how: working as a team to provide personalized service and creative solutions.