A BRIEF CAREER RETROSPECTIVE

ROBERT H. (BOB) FORBES, JR., P.E.

APRIL 26, 2019 (66TH BIRTHDAY AND RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENT)

IF YOU HAVEN’T FAILED ONCE OR TWICE IN AN ENGINEERING CAREER…

… THEN YOU SURE HAVEN’T DONE MUCH!

BACKGROUND – ANCIENT HISTORY

• Born on April 26, 1953 in Greenville, NC

• Grew up on a family tobacco farm in Pitt County, NC, played HS football ☺

• 1971 – Studied at North Carolina State University, joined engineering co-op

program, worked at a regional engineering firm

• 1976 – Earned BSCE with high honors (beats me how ☺)… had first career crisis

• 1976-78 – Joined US Peace Corps and served as a water supply engineer in the

Kingdom of Tonga, South Pacific

• 1979-81 – Went to grad school, University of North Carolina Dept. of Envir.

Sciences and Engineering, earned MS

• July 27, 1981 – Started working for CH2M HILL in Gainesville, FL office

Highlights:

• Bonita Springs WW Reuse System

• Fort Pierce Island WRF Expansion

• Key West EPA Grant Application and Award

• Fayetteville Cross Creek WRF Expansion

(springboard to CLT transfer)

• Transferred to ATL & CLT in 1988 to finish

Cross Creek design and PM construction

phase

Hard Lessons:

• Pompano Beach 48” Raw Water Main

(lawsuit, depositions, etc.)

• Landis Sewerage Authority, NJ design and

construction (tough client and site

conditions)

• Catoma WWTP centrifuge design (change

management issues)

1980’s

Highlights:

• Steered CMUD and CH2M HILL away from in-vessel

composting technology

• Fayetteville Cross Creek WRF won national operations

award in 1993

• Follow-on projects with Fayetteville PWC

• Grand Strand WSA thermophilic digestion

• CMUD RMF (operated by OMI 1998-99)

• WEF RBC 1999 – Conference tour of RMF resulted in

my “big break” with CH2M HILL’s global WBG group

Hard Lessons:

• Dropped off CH2M HILL internal radar (CLT was small,

isolated office)

• Cary-Apex WTP (use of remote design center caused

communication problems)

• CMUD and City of Charlotte politics (no-win situations)

• CMUD RMF (composting and lime stabilization challenges)

• Internal company issues

1990’s

Highlights:

• Started working for CH2M HILL global

WBG, expanding reach to other regions

• Managed WERF program on biosolids

odors ($2M budget, 5 years)

• Some ground-breaking local projects too:

• Gastonia, multiple W and WW projects

• Wake County W/S Master Plan, with

follow-on merger work

• Durham GHG study – springboard to

other GHG initiatives

Hard Lessons:

• Union County, NC (home county politics)

• OWASA W/S Master Plan (tough client, conflicting

priorities and directives)

• Durham W/S Strategic Plan (tight budget, CSM/PM

conflicts)

2000’s

Highlights:

• On Saudi Arabia NWC Jeddah Sewage Lake

team that won Global Water Project of the Year

• Other ground-breaking projects in Middle East

• Australian work assignments

• Exciting projects in Alaska, Brazil, Florida,

Georgia, Texas

Hard Lessons:

• Work/life balance

• Excessive travel

• Family issues

2010’s

IT’S BEEN AN INTERESTING, INTENSE, AND MOSTLY REWARDING CAREER –NOW TIME TO GO FISHING, SPOIL GRANDCHILDREN, WRITE MEMOIRS, ETC.