Arch Charnas, a long time surveyor in Trumbull County Ohio, passed away this past Tuesday morning.
I have lost quite a few friends, family and professional associates in the past 5-6 years, that it's left me a little bewildered ... especially so, for the younger ones(even younger than me).
The rush of new surveyors in Ohio is coming to an end.
The days of 250 hopefuls sitting for the SIT(now surveying intern), and/or the professional license is over and done. Now, from what I understand, a small fraction of this number attends the testing.
The days of the 3 & 4 man crew ... the comradery, ... the "happy hours", where we'd meet with crew members of other surveyors and the days of actually putting one's hand "on", and having direct control of the instruments of measure, are over.
Too, it seems those days, when it seemed "every"(almost every), crew member had a real vested interest in the true "art", of surveying and the overwelming urge to become licensed ... have somewhat vanished.
We ... were the last of the old school methodology. The sliderule, log books, stadia, the 1' constant, the open transits, plumb-bobs, dip-needles(box compass), hand compass, pacing off, 200' highway(or babbit), or the 300' canyon or pioneer tapes, the tension pullers and the tape clamps, dumpy levels and hand levels ... even then, our foray into those even older tools was short-lived and gave way to more modern theodolites, EDM's and pin finders ... and calculators, computers, cad, and all sorts of amazing things.
We were the surveyors at the cusp of the new age of surveying ... the new age that took 30-40 years to get here and continues evolving to new, even more wonderous things that quite frankly, would leave us in complete disbelief those 30-40 years ago.
Another 10-20 years, we'll pretty much all be gone and our names will have to be remembered in the documents related to our surveys.
But, at least ... regardless of whether the surveyors of the future honor us, curse us, or even wish they could dig us up ... just to spit on us ... we will be remembered for many years to come ... long after our sons' and daughters', sons' and daughters' sons and daughters, or those of our faithful friends have long forgotten our presence on earth.
:good:
We leave lasting tracks, those tracks left in the recordings states will be backed up in the records and effect land boundary's for as long as those Records of Survey's exist. Our work will live and our names will be remembered much longer than an obituary could do and outlast our loved ones and their memory's. We will be remembered by our filed surveys as long as those records exist, that should be a very long time.
jud
It's true. In New Hampshire where I am a second generation surveyor, I work with my father on a daily basis. He began surveying in the early seventies, and I after college in the late nineties. Although it is important for my generation to understand the history, the "how they did it" and the "what did they use" questions, I wish I could answer the "why they did it" in many occasions. Did the surveyors of the sixties and seventies not think we would be digging their surveys up forty, fifty years later? Did they not think we would try to close the plans, or retrace their surveys on the ground?
Was it the golden era just because the surveyor of the time had a physical connection to the lower motion, or because they had to shovel lines through the snow to enable level steel taping?
I wish the "old guard" would stop the incessant war stories of how good it was, and instead start trying to recruit new pre-professionals. Once the few younger members of the profession have joined a firm, why can't the "old guard" mentor instead of complain how "these kids don't have a clue..."
If the old guard doesn't want to simply fade away, they should get active in their state surveying societies, get involved, and teach.
It may sound corny, but I never set a property corner without thinking about a surveyor finding it a hundred years from now. I hope I do them proud.
> It may sound corny, but I never set a property corner without thinking about a surveyor finding it a hundred years from now. I hope I do them proud.
Exactly. That is one reason that I don't set 2-bit (sub-par) rebar. Good call.
My hope for my legacy is that 100 years from now when a surveyor finds one of my plats in the courthouse the first word that he utters isn't "Dam".
I'm sure we all know of surveyors from yesteryear that we do that for.
:good:
You and others shouldn't write your own eulogies , leave it to somebody else.
Well written, nice, and nostalgic. Thank you.
Romantics?
Can't speak for all us old silverbacks, but I'm a hopeless and boring romantic.
I love the smell of an old drawer full of inked linens that hasn't yet been opened this century. I love the memories of surveying in the '60s when the whole world was young and bullet-proof.
I have several transits on a shelf in my office. I love getting a glass out and reading the vernier. And yes, I love shootin' the breeze with other older surveyors about "back-in-the-day". And I'm proud to be lucky enough to have happened into a career that changed so much for the better during my watch. But enough of the "way-back" machine. If all that old crap was so cool, why don't we still depend on it?
Why? Because everything is so much better now. You might think you liked sitting in a 1957 GMC truck for $0.75 an hour waiting for the pc to finish pencil whipping something so you could brush-hook a quarter of a mile of line...just to miss a pin by a foot or so. It was not that much fun. In later years I have regarded that experience as rewarding, but nowhere near fun.
The things we still depend on are the investigation, recordation, persistence, stamina and redundant verification that has always been there. The triangle hasn't changed since Pythagoras invented it.
Surveyors younger than me that weren't around back then are still very much surveyors. Maybe even more so than us older guys. The digital records that are at our finger tips and the technology that can fix us instantly on this orb will only make them better surveyors...as long as they keep that desire to work as diligently and error-free as possible with undaunted honest efficiency in recordation of their work.
The new generation is no different than the old generation. They too will age and have fond memories of the good-old-days. But maybe with a little help from the latest technology they won't have to endure the elements as much as we have. Maybe words like retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, melanoma and UV cataracts won't be a part of their vocabulary. Maybe they won't suffer hearing loss from standing next to a 600hp Detroit at 2300 rpm all day long trying to stake sewer.
I do love the memories of the old days, but all old guys do. Today, let's give the next one's up to bat a big cheer. This is their "good-old-days". I believe they are the future of surveying and are better equipped than we were. Sail on young folks and do it right. B-)
> If the old guard doesn't want to simply fade away, they should get active in their state surveying societies, get involved, and teach.
You just hit on one of the primary reasons I left the private sector in 1996 and taught full time until last year.
I did some business with Mr. Charnas many years ago.
A fine surveyor and a gentleman. I am truly sorry to hear of his passing.
