PROFILES: MEET THE MEMBER – JUDD KING

For Judd King, a Geotechnical Engineer and this month’s featured member of ASCE, life is all about balance. From geotechnical work to Hawaiian getaways, he has cultivated a fulfilling life founded on a combination of academics, career ambition, and the ability to “take time to step back” and see the larger scheme of things.

A Nipomo native, Judd’s path as an engineer began with his studies at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, developing a more specialized interest in Geotechnical Engineering through his work as a lab technician. In 1998 he transferred to Cal Poly, subsequently graduating with his focus in water resources and geotechnical engineering in 2001. The transition from technical knowledge to in-field assignments such as the Avila Beach Remediation Project had a significant impact on Judd’s practice, the latter providing more “hands-on” training. As Judd described it, “one’s education should accomplish two things: learn concepts your study is founded on, and develop tools to further understand your field after graduation to help you see the bigger picture”.

After graduation, Judd married his wife, Valarie. They took some time away from the hustle and bustle of “mainland life” and worked at a camp on Catalina Island building staff housing and other roles with operation of an isolated facility. Feeling obligated to put his degree to more use, Judd and Valarie moved to Sacramento where he found work as a staff engineer for a geotechnical consulting company. With a desire to move closer to his family and the ocean, they moved back to the Central Coast where Judd landed a job at Earth Systems Pacific in 2004. His respect for Earth Systems, whose goals include “client service that is appropriate and pragmatic,” is grounded in the company’s relationship-based business model and their emphasis on “building relationships with clients.” Judd feels the “commoditization of Civil Engineers” has become a common issue, and Earth Systems helps combat that mentality with good business that values engineers as a professional group.

Being a relativist at heart, Judd easily admits to having a pessimistic leaning, “[as an engineer] I get paid to evaluate issues, and I guess that has trained me to be critical.” As a means to look at things realistically, Judd tries to bracket results from a perceived best to worst-case-scenario when producing work, measuring likely results and developing recommendations accordingly. For Judd, Geotechnical Engineering is a “blend of both art and science, requiring the application of engineering properties and parameters to something that shifts and changes. There are generally no absolutes.”

As a professional whose work combines the generally mathematical, rigid science of engineering with an organic understanding of the earth, it’s only logical Judd also endeavors to preserve a sense of personal balance. He describes life as having “pools,” and a harmonious lifestyle involves filling those pools as evenly as possible between work and personal fulfillment.  If life lacks balance, “apathy sets in.” To maintain his own equilibrium Judd enjoys trail running and recently participated in a Tough Mudder obstacle course race in Lake Tahoe. Additionally, road trips, camping, spending time with his wife and 4-year old daughter Aleah, and traveling are some of his favorite off-time activities.

Having so many demands for attention—work, family, chores—it can be difficult to find time for personal activities. Judd understands that balance is achieved by actively seeking ways to make time for those things that matter most. While Judd admits that he isn’t always adept at finding balance, he is always willing to make adjustments and see what may or may not work—perhaps just like Geotechnical Engineering, balance is a blend between art and science; and something might work one day that doesn’t work the next, and where there are “no absolutes ever, generally.”