Bob Morrison Inducted into the Montana Society of Engineers Hall of Fame
Bob Morrison, Jr., PE, Morrison-Maierle’s third President and CEO, was inducted into the Montana Society of Engineers Hall of Fame on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, at the Joint Engineers Conference in Helena.
Bob received his B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1977 and his M.S. in Civil Engineering (Environmental Emphasis) in 1978, both from Montana State University. As a Montana State University student, Bob was a member of two engineering honor societies and received the MSU Civil Engineering Outstanding Student Award in 1977.
He specialized in process design for water, wastewater, pumping, pipeline, and sludge handling facilities. For more than 40 years, he worked on water and wastewater projects in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Alaska.
Bringing Clean Water to Tribal Nations
Bob says one project stands out the most, a roughly four-decade effort to bring clean drinking water to the Oglala Sioux Reservation in southwestern South Dakota. Previously, the reservation had limited groundwater supplies for its drinking water, which was also of very poor quality in most locations.
Conceived in the 1980s, even before Bob joined Morrison-Maierle Inc., the Mni-Wiconi Rural Water System was completed in 2015. (In the Oglala Sioux language, “mni-wiconi” means “water is life.”) The project serves 50,000 people spread across 12,500 square miles and is the most extensive rural water system in the United States.
Bob has always commented that this project impacted his life and emphasized how much his career as a civil engineer helped people live better lives. “As engineers, we focus on the technical details, and ‘that’s important. But we often lose sight of the big picture. The Mni-Wiconi project really reinforced to me that our job as civil engineers benefits society. Even our smallest projects help someone in some way.”
Fostering a Culture of Mentorship
Bob Morrison elevated leadership and mentorship to new levels for several of Montana’s leading civil engineers working in today’s market. Many regard him as having “twin talents” for engineering and teaching, as he has brought out potential in their engineering careers that they didn’t know they had. He is known for his kind, calm, steady, and thoughtful leadership throughout Montana and beyond.
Once Bob was named President/CEO of Morrison-Maierle, he continued to mentor engineers and professionals, while also leading the company through comprehensive and inclusive strategic planning. His efforts set the company on an unprecedented path of growth, establishing it as a Western regional professional services engineering company that continues to thrive today.
Work and Family Progression
He began his career at CH2M HILL in 1979, where he progressed from design engineer to project manager and then to department manager. In 1991, Bob and Kathy decided to move back to Montana, where he began his Morrison-Maierle career. He held various positions from operations manager to chief engineer and then to President/CEO in 2006. That same year, he was awarded the George Warren Fuller Award from the American Water Works Association’s (AWWA’s) Montana Section, the highest award an engineer can attain in the field of water and wastewater in Montana.
Bob served as President of Morrison-Maierle until 2016 and continued working for the company as a project manager and senior engineer on projects for the City of Bozeman and Billings, and the Crow Tribal Nation, until he retired in December 2021. Following his career, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Montana Water Environment Association and the Montana Section of the AWWA in 2022.
In his retirement, Bob remains deeply devoted to Montana State University. He is a member of the MSU Alumni Association and the Bobcat Club, and he was an external advisor in the university’s civil engineering department. He has also served on the MSU Alumni Foundation’s Board of Governors. He still serves as a Board member of the MSU Alumni Foundation’s subsidiary organizations, Advanced Technology Inc. (ATI) and Innovation Campus (IC), and is the President of the ATI Board. Say hello when you see him at a Bobcat game!
Bob also enjoys spending time with his wife, Kathy, as well as their children and grandchildren, in Bozeman.