Distinguished Engineer
Hometown: Madison
Civil Engineering,
Robert D. Mitchell spent two years working as an engineering consultant in Madison following his graduation from South Dakota State College. He returned to SDSC as an instructor for two years and went on to study at Harvard University where he received his M.S. degree and was a Gordon McKay fellow in sanitary engineering. He joined Malcolm Pirnie of New York where he began work as a project engineer. He was named senior vice president and chief engineer in 1970. Among his projects are two dams for Waterbury, Connecticut; two dams for New Haven, Connecticut; a dam for Rome, New York; a dam on the Maumelle River in Arkansas, two wastewater facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio; the expansion of wastewater facilities in Cleveland, Ohio; two water filtration plants in Newport News, Virginia; three water filtration plants in Birmingham, Alabama and two water filtration plants in Erie County, New York. During World War II, he served as a major in the U.S. Army assigned to the Office of Interamerican Affairs. After the war, he returned to Malcom Pirnie and worked there until his retirement in 1975