2023 Winter Webinar

A second generation surveyor, Dr. Elgin was raised in St. James, Missouri and in his late parents' surveying business located in nearby Rolla. After high school Dick joined the Army, went through helicopter flight school, was made a Warrant Officer, and spent 1969 in Vietnam flying the Hughes OH6A “LOH” and the ubiquitous UH‑1 "Huey" with the Americal Division.  Following the Army he received the BSCE and MSCE degrees from the Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T, Rolla, MO) and his PhD from the University of Arkansas.  Leaving Arkansas he joined the faculty of the Department of Civil Engineering at S&T as an Assistant Professor (1980‑1984) and is now Adjunct Professor Emeritus.  From 1984 until 2008 Dick was the owner and President of Elgin Surveying & Engineering, Inc.  

Semi‑retired, Dick currently works for Archer-Elgin Engineering, Surveying and Architecture.  He is a former member of the Missouri Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Professional Land Surveyors and Professional Landscape Architects; a Past‑President of the Missouri Society of Professional Surveyors; a member of both S&T's and the University of Arkansas' Academy of Civil Engineers; a member of S&T's Order of the Golden Shillelagh; and on the Board of Directors of S&T’s Alumni Association.  

With Drs. David Knowles and the late Joe Senne, Dick coauthored the Celestial Observation Handbook and Ephemeris and codeveloped the "ASTRO" celestial observation software products.  With David Knowles, he coauthored Legal Principles of Boundary Location for Arkansas and The U.S. Public Land Survey System for Arkansas.  Dick is the author of The U.S. Public Land Survey System for Missouri, Riparian Boundaries for Arkansas and Riparian Boundaries for Missouri.  He also wrote Shoulda Played the Flute, a memoir of his year flying helicopters in Vietnam.  Dick was Arkansas’ surveying and mapping expert in a state riparian boundary dispute with Mississippi, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.  See Arkansas v. Mississippi, 471 U.S. 377 (1985).  He is an avid collector and researcher of early American surveying equipment, and owns one of the largest private collections of such equipment in the United States.  Semi‑retired, he and his wife enjoy touring by bicycle, RV or in their perfectly restored 1976 Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior or 1967 Austin Cooper 1275 S.

Davey Edwards is a licensed professional land surveyor in Texas and Oklahoma, a Texas-licensed state land surveyor, and a certified federal land surveyor. He has surveyed on the ground in every region of Texas and Oklahoma. He is currently a professional assistant professor in the Geographic Information Science undergraduate and Geospatial Systems Engineering graduate programs at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and the former director of the Texas Spatial Reference Center.

Davey has his BS in Biomedical Science from Texas A&M University in College Station, MS in Geospatial Surveying Engineering from Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, and a Doctorate in Geosciences from the University of Texas in Dallas. His studies concentrated on land administration systems and riparian boundary morphology.

Davey has worked with congressional members to successfully pass the Red River Gradient Boundary Act to protect private property owners and the State of Texas against improper surveying methods along the Red River. Additionally, he worked with congressional members to successfully pass the Red River Gradient Boundary Act to protect private property owners and the State of Texas against improper surveying methods along the Red River.

Most recently, Davey was elected by the membership of the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) to be the next president-elect. This is only the fourth time a surveyor from Texas has served as a leader of NSPS since 1981. He is the 2006 recipient of the TSPS Young Surveyor of the Year award and the 2007 recipient of the TSPS Chapter President of the Year award. He is currently serving as a survey emeritus member of the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (TBPELS) and a member of the survey advisory committee. Davey has served as a public member of the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners (TBAE) and a licensed state land surveyor member of the Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying (TBPLS). Additionally, he is a former chair of the City of Decatur’s planning and zoning commission.