With mixed emotions, Baird, Hampton & Brown announces the recent retirement of Kevin Miller, PE after being a valuable member of our team for 22 years.
Kevin began his career in 1980 as Assistant City Engineer for the City of Goshen, Indiana before moving to Texas a year later. Kevin worked for BHB’s founder Bill Baird at another engineering firm as an Engineer in Training before earning his Professional Engineer license. In 1988, Kevin became the Assistant Public Works Director for the City of North Richland Hills. He had a major hand in rewriting the City’s Public Works Design Manual, much of which is still in effect today. In 2000, Kevin returned to the private sector to work at a company run by BHB’s Vice President Ottis Lee. A few years later, that company was acquired by BHB, and Kevin was working for Bill Baird once again.
Because of the relationships he had built with the City of North Richland Hills, Kevin was able to continue providing consulting services to them throughout his career, as well as several other municipalities including Keller, Haltom City, Cleburne, and Hood County.
Caroline Waggoner, PE, Director of Public Works for the City of North Richland Hills, has worked with Kevin on numerous projects over the years. “Kevin Miller is a standout in the world of consulting engineers,” she said. “His ability to effectively communicate technical concepts with city staff, inspectors, and contractors is rare and much appreciated, as is his willingness to literally get down in the trenches during construction. He never shied away from the teachable engineering moments, and I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him.”
At BHB, Kevin’s role included client development, contract negotiation, design, construction review, and problem resolution for a variety of different markets. He was an engineer that truly wanted to serve the public—something he learned from Greg Dickens, former Director of Public Works for the City of North Richland Hills, during their time working together. He believes that all jobs and all clients deserve to be treated like their project is special, and anything less would be a disservice to the client.
“The best civil engineers are those that you can’t see their work. If we do our job correctly, with honor, diligence, and careful thought, nobody has to fix it, the engineering or construction,” he said. “Over the course of my career, I’ve provided engineering for projects that needed to be built because somebody else didn’t get it exactly right. I would like to think my solution on those projects helped make some lives a little better.”
In his retirement, Kevin is most looking forward to spending time with his family. His mother and daughter have both survived cancer so they are his first priority. Otherwise, he plans to get more involved with his astronomy hobby; he has a telescope (an eight-inch Meade Reflector on a motorized equatorial mount) and owns land outside of the city where the skies are more visible.
We would like to express our endless gratitude to Kevin for his dedication to BHB and wish him nothing but the best in his retirement.