Every so often, a truly historic CH2M HILL document is rediscovered in someone’s personal files or archive. Thanks to Tom Higgins, “Retrospective” (PDF) is such a discovery!
Tom writes:
“When I started in the firm in August 1984, I was intrigued by the history, with Jim Howland visiting offices and talking about the early years at OSU and founding the company. At the time, we had a quarterly internal newsletter that had a series of articles about the firm’s history. I collected a number of copies and put together a few copies of a rough brochure that I showed to prospective clients and new employees to answer the inevitable question as to what CH2M HILL meant.
I was given the role of directing employee training for the Northeast, as well as BD responsibilities. I tried to get BD and HR interested in printing the rough brochure I had created; but when both found out it could be useful for the other department, they sent me to the other for funding. Finally, I was in Denver for project work, and knocked on Jim Poirot’s door to introduce myself. Jim looked at my creation and talked about the firm for about an hour. At the end, he called in his administrative aide, and said “Make it happen.” An editor was assigned and soon the Retrospective came out. At one time, I was told that it was the most printed brochure we ever produced.”