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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.