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 UH1 “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 (19801984) and is now Adjunct Professor Emeritus. From 1984 until 2008 Dick was the owner and President of Elgin Surveying & Engineering, Inc. Semiretired, 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 PastPresident 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” and “Riparian Boundaries for Arkansas.” 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. Semiretired, 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.
