In 1965, while passing a football in the backyard, Jim’s dad said, “you should apply to Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology) and major in electrical engineering.” The next day Jim mailed away an application – an education and a career ensued. After graduating cum laude from Missouri at Rolla, Jim moved to Cincinnati to work as an electrical engineer in the paper products group at Procter & Gamble. A couple of career moves later, having passed the P.E. exam, Jim answered a newspaper ad and was hired as an electrical engineer with Fosdick & Hilmer, Inc. (F&H) consulting engineers. That started a 44-year consulting career during which Jim engineered and managed projects for various clients, including those in industrial, commercial, healthcare, education, central utilities, government, and mission-critical businesses. Having acquired an ownership interest in F&H in 1982, Jim became majority owner and President in 1990. He was the firm’s managing principal until selling to KFI Engineers in 2020. Today, Jim applies his acquired engineering and management skills, assisting KFI with business development, project delivery, and staff mentoring.
In addition to being an engineer, Jim is a guitar man, tennis player, ocean sailor, and SCUBA diver. He is married to his wife of 47 years, Linda; he has two grown daughters – a radiation oncologist and a speech pathologist – and four feisty grandchildren.
