Art Osborn, RPLS

Art has a deep respect for the youth in the surveying profession. “The surveying students and young Surveyors- in-Training I have been associated with are borderline geniuses” Art recently said about the younger generation he has worked with.  Art is a past president of the Texas Society of Professional Surveyors and a recipient of many awards and acknowledgements from the Society. Art, the 1987 Surveyor of the Year, received the Presidential Award in the Area of Education in 1991 as well as the Hugh L. George Award in 1994. 
     Art has been with John Cowen & Associates for over 50 years and was elected as President of the firm in 1985. He is currently serving as President Emeritus. Art has been a RPLS since August, 1964 and is an often requested speaker and teacher of surveying. For the past fifteen years he has presented surveying seminars in all regions of the state covering a multitude of subjects.

 

 

Davey Edwards, RPLS/LSLS/CFedS 

Davey recently said “I am a strong believer that this profession cannot be taught solely in a book or behind a computer” and has helped develop and teach seminars relating to boundary construction. One of Davey’s goals is to “help make the surveying profession one of the most prestigious and sought after fields of professionalism”. 
     Davey is the Vice President of Edwards Surveying, LLC in Decatur, Texas. He is a Texas Registered Professional Land Surveyor and Licensed State Land Surveyor and is a licensed surveyor in Oklahoma. In addition, he is the only Certified Federal Surveyor in the state of Texas. Davey holds a B.S. degree in Biomedical Sciences from Texas A&M University. He is very active in the Texas Society of Professional Surveyors and was awarded the Young Surveyor of the Year and Chapter President of the Year honors. 

 

Darrell Shine, RPLS/LSLS

“I think the surveying profession is one of the most interesting and exciting professions a person could choose today. After 60 years of surveying I look forward to going to work every day.” Regarded as the authority on water boundaries in Texas, Darrell has surveyed hundreds of miles of gradient boundary surveys along rivers and streams, and when he hasn’t been strumming on his banjo, has surveyed nearly a million forest acres in Southeast Texas, more than 100,000 acres of marshland and coastal prairie, approximately 240,000 acres in the Texas Panhandle, 110,000 acres in South Texas, and provided surveying consulting services on 60,000 acres in far West Texas, as well as 400,000 acres along Laguna Madre and Baffin Bay in Kenedy County. 
     In May 1987 Darrell was named as the recipient of the Conrad Blucher Chair for Excellence in Surveying. He also has been commissioned by TAMUCC to author a book entitled Inland and Coastal Waters of Texas and Their Boundaries. During his career he has been an instructor for various surveying courses at Texas A & M University and Lamar University as well as steadily conducting seminars across Texas. Darrell has long been a proponent of “surveyors helping surveyors” and to this end has dedicated revenue from seminars presented by him to helping aspiring young surveyors to attend college.

 

Garey Gilley, RPLS/LSLS

When asked what influenced his decision to follow surveying as a profession Garey responded “I needed a job”. Garey has capitalized on that “job” and involved himself in professional and business development and distinguished himself as a lawmaker during his service on the Fort Worth City Council. “Surveying principles and governing statutes all work together when dealing with property rights” Garey stated.
     Garey is the former President of Brookes Baker Surveyors, Inc. He is a Registered Professional Land Surveyor and a Licensed State Land Surveyor and development consultant. Garey is currently the Investigator of complaints for the Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying. He is a lifelong resident of Tarrant County, Texas and has more than 35 years of experience representing property owners, land developers, and taxing jurisdictions. He is commonly retained to document and re-document the most complicated boundaries and is frequently called upon to provide testimony in legal disputes.

 

Nedra Foster, RPLS/LSLS

“Working as a woman in a male dominated profession, I have never been made to feel unwelcome - quite the contrary.  The men I work with always hold the barbed wire fence so I can get over!” 
     Currently serving as President of Shine & Associates, Nedra was recently appointed by Governor Rick Perry to Chair the Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying. Her career to date has culminated in extensive experience with water boundaries, having worked on more than twenty inland rivers across Texas and performing approximately 200 miles of gradient boundary surveying, as well as having worked on more than two dozen coastal boundary survey projects. Her published works for Professional Surveyor magazine include the article “Spindletop – 100 Years Later” concerning re-location of the site that ushered in the oil boom for the entire country, and “In the Heart of the Big Thicket,” an article covering a National Park Service project of surveying 159 miles of gradient boundary on Big Sandy and Village Creek.

 

Brian Autio, RPLS

“All large surveying projects involve collaboration and partnership with fellow surveyors and I’ve been very lucky to work with and around some of the finest – this continues to be the most educational, rewarding and fun part of my career” states Brian.
Brian is the Geospatial Information Manager for BP Gulf of Mexico Strategic Performance Unit in Houston, Texas. He has worked as a professional surveyor in a broad range and scope of experiences over 20 years: from his primary work in the field of oil and gas exploration and production, to teaching as an adjunct professor, to considerable time in heavy construction. Brian is a licensed surveyor in Texas, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming.   He has a B.S. in Land Surveying from Michigan Technological University and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University.
His surveying work stretches from the northern mountains of Montana to 10,000 foot depths of the Gulf of Mexico on projects such as positioning drilling exploration and development wells, land acquisition and divestment, state and federal regulatory compliance, severe weather team and crisis response, economic studies, and litigation involving land boundary issues.

 

Ben Thomson, RPLS/LSLS 

"The surveyor has to be part lawyer, part historian and part mathematician in order to do his job properly," states Thomson. He worries that major colleges and universities in the state have de-emphasized surveying education, and the profession's ability to attract good students has suffered accordingly. "The surveying profession has never gotten the credit it deserves," he said. "Engineering, architecture and medicine all get high visibility (but) without a surveyor, none of those people would have a place to practice."           
           Until very recently, Thomson served as Senior Land Surveyor in the Texas General Land Office, the culmination of a career in the profession that stretches back to 1960. A proud Texas Aggie, Ben Thomson has served as an elder statesman and mentor to many in the Texas surveying community.

 

James Noble Johnson, Panel Moderator

On describing the various facets of surveying, Jim says “I love the historical element—how things were done, how people thought about and dealt with things in other times.” 

Practicing Real Estate Attorney and well-known author and lecturer to the surveying and legal communities, Jim has served as Chairman of the Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying, Commissioner of the Texas Real Estate Commission, Supervising City Attorney to the City of Austin, is a contributing editor of Professional Surveyor magazine and has authored Texas Practice Guide, “Real Estate Transactions” a 4 volume set published by Thomson-West Group. “As an attorney working with clients, boundary descriptions, and surveying problems from work done 30 to 150 years ago, the quality of surveys produced today is far superior than it has ever been.”

 
Ken Gold, RPLS

After being so involved with the educational aspects of surveying for many years, Ken’s views on the present state of surveying education are summarized by his comments “today we have two sources for survey related degrees and a Master's Degree program working, and they are supported by students looking forward to joining the profession. Today they are finding their way into well . . . very well, paying jobs and moving up ladders . . . and taking the profession with them.”  
 
As the only surveyor to be twice honored as “Surveyor of the Year” by the Texas Society of Professional Surveyors, Ken is one of the most prolific lecturers in Texas as well as other states. Furthermore, his book “Decisions” is considered to be the most comprehensive reference text on boundary surveying in Texas. Retiring after 30 years as the Principal Surveyor and head of the Surveying and Mapping Division of Houston Lighting & Power Company, Ken continues to provide analysis and legal testimony as a surveying and mapping consultant.