Registered/licensed in: Florida

Survey Manager, Mehta & Associates Inc., Winter Park, Fla.

Other professional credits: BS in civil engineering, BS in surveying, MBA in project management, notary public

Year started in profession: 1962

How started in profession: “[Surveying] was one of the topics in pre-engineering seminar.”

What you like best about land surveying: “It’s honest work, I meet people [and it] requires math.”

What grinds you: “Complacency and raw plain, sheer stupidity.”

What keeps you going in your job: “After all these years, it still challenges me.”

Best surveying memory: “Showing the first electronic topo plot to Walt Robillard and listen to him say, “That stuff’ will never fly.”

Weirdest memory: “Being stung by 27 yellow jackets that could fly faster than I could run after popping a manhole.”

Accessories you can’t leave home without: “Cell phones, keys, credit cards, wife’s picture, childrens’ pictures.”

Personal philosophy: “Be true to myself, do good work, respect everyone I meet and sleep in on Sunday morning.”

Contributions to the profession: “Am a doer and a teacher, and have written several articles on surveying.”

Greatest personal accomplishments: “[I] was fortunate to be at the beginnings of electronic surveying. My input was listened to and many [ideas] were used in software that was being written in those early days of data collection and COGO. I’ve written training manuals and magazine articles. I’ve written the survey section of user and reference manuals for software. I’ve traveled across the country coaching, teaching, lecturing and training surveying professionals in the methods of electronic surveying.”

Reason why you’re a role model for future surveyors: “I do good work and I demand good work. I am not afraid to ‘get dirty’ to do good work.”

Reason how surveyors can ensure future success in industry: “Aside from the article ‘Surveyors in Turmoil’ posted on POB Online in September 2003, I believe the surveyor as an individual must become more responsible for what he [or she] does. The surveyor is the expert measurer—not the EDM, not the GPS, not the spatial device. The organizations that call themselves protectors of our profession are mostly social in nature and self-serving. There are MAJOR issues affecting the surveying profession and we surveyors must do something besides writing useless letters and spending unproductive time on chat boards.”

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