Pub. 14 2019 Issue 1

www.ucls.org 16 Issue 1 2019 / UCLS Foresights V on began Surveying at age twelve working under a party chief named Dean Mortensen. The employer was Great Basin and his father was one of the own- ers. In that era surveying was done with a transit and chain and the crew had three or four members. Sometimes they would use an electronic distance meter. His father purchased the first electronic distance meter in the state of Utah. It could easily measure ten miles, but all the measurements had to be done at night, took about a ½ hour and then calculations had to be done in the office. During high school and college, he also worked for ESI, Terra Engi- neering and Bingham Engineering. Upon completion of a master’s in business administration in 1977 he joined his father as a partner in Hillwest Engineering and development. The firm has had a few name changes due to people retiring or dying, Von survived his career, and the company became Entellus a few years ago. Von retired in January of this year leaving his surveying position in the capable hands of Jerimiah Cunningham. He was active in UCLS from the beginning of his career, served as the Salt Lake Chapter president and has chaired and partici- pated in various committees. He also served on the ACEC ethics committee. Von served 8 years as a member of the Utah Licensing Board for Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors and served as chairman of that board, making significant updates to the Utah Specific Land Surveyors exam during that time. He was elected to serve as the Western United States representative on the Board of Directors for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. For the past twelve years he has served on the NCEES Survey- ing Exam Committee. This committee prepares the National Licensure Exams for Professional Surveyors. So, he’s partially to blame for those test questions you got wrong. Von is licensed as a professional surveyor in Utah and Idaho and was first licensed in 1985. In 1992 Von purchased the first GPS system owned by a private company in Utah, Hill, Jamison and associates. Von has served on the West Bountiful City Council. Von has served on the Boun- tiful City Planning Commission for the last nine years and has served as the Morgan County Surveyor. Von has also filed over two thousand records or surveys throughout Utah, north to south, east to west. and often con- sults as an expert witness on boundary cases. Has seen any type of boundary or survey issue imaginable. Von Teaches in the Surveying Program at Salt Lake Community College and has served on the advisory council for the Surveying Programs of UVU and SLCC. Husband of Wendy and father of six children one of which is a surveyor who maps the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Von currently ski’s two days a week, which is pure fun and less stressful than running a business. He has also hiked the Grand Canyon every October for the last twenty-seven years and loves rappelling through the slot canyons of Southern Utah. He dreams about hiking from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail one day. t Von Hill, PLS Lifetime Achievement Award