(The People Who Built The Firm)
CH2M HILL is the result of the melding of a number of organizations founded by people of diverse skills but of similar values. The common traits most often used to describe these values are technical skills, public relations and communication abilities, integrity, and leadership qualities. Each of the founders looked for these qualities in every member of the staff that was brought into their respective organizations.
Not enough emphasis can be placed on the fact that two individuals, Ralph Roderick and Archie Rice, played a critically important part in the birthing of CH2M. The reason that their names are not an integral part of the firm logo is due only to the fact that they themselves insisted that the inclusion of their names would make the firm name too long and too difficult to use in marketing efforts. (CH2R2M?). It is not widely known that the original four partners, each holding a 25% share of the partnership, readily gave up an initial portion of their holdings to give the two Rs a respectable ownership status of 10% each, which in a few short years was changed to an even 16 2/3% for each of the six partners. This is not only a testament to the value placed on the association with the two Rs, but also clearly shows the depth of the instinct of fairness demonstrated by the original four founders from a very early date.
Because so many people made so many distinct and separate contributions to CH2M HILL’s later success, it would now be quite impossible to list them all and identify the particular ingredients they brought to the undertaking. The attempt to categorize the personalities of those who contributed most heavily to the early growth and development of CH2M HILL falls into two categories: Founding Partners of CH2M and Clair A. Hill and Associates and Others. The Others classification is a selective listing of professionals and managers, individuals who cast their lot with an emerging company and created a solid base of technical, administrative and support staff that carried the weight of that company on their backs until it reached maturity. This category was constructed with heavy reliance on the memories of a few survivors of the early years and constitutes only a fraction of the names that possibly deserve to be included. The input of others to furnish the names of additional deserving staff members is solicited and would be welcomed.
A third category, The Unsung Heroines, contains reminiscences of spouses without whose support major milestones could not have been achieved.