Talking with Craig Johnstone, you can’t help but smile. The love and enthusiasm he exudes when speaking about his job is infectious, even if you don’t always understand everything he’s talking about.
Johnstone is celebrating 50 years in the land surveying business. From starting as an intern who knew nothing about the field to owning his own business 35 years later, Johnstone has seen the industry change and grow more than he ever imagined.
Johnstone fell into the job that would become his career like a lot of kids do — trying it out while on break from college. He had been searching for a summer position when he received a call from then Jasper County Engineer Chuck Cabalka.
“When Chuck called and asked me if I found a summer job yet that year, I said no I am still looking and he said do you want to work on the survey crew?” Johnstone said. “I said, ‘Chuck I don’t anything about surveying’ — he said, ‘we’ll teach ya.’ When I reminded him of that he said we must not have done a very good job because you are still learning. I said, ‘I will until the day I die.’”
One of Johnstone’s first projects was staking out the Reasnor road also known as Highway S74 South. He and his crew would have to set a control every 50 feet in the straight part of the road and every 25 feet in the curves, both vertical and horizontal.
“In 1966, it was a four man crew. You had a person that was running the transit, the older instrument that sets on the three legged tripod and you look through to get alignment. You had a note keeper to keep the notes of what was going on. Then, you had two guys on a 100 foot steel tape that did the measuring,” Johnstone said. “Today, I do all of that by myself with either a Robotic Total Station (RTS) or GPS. It is amazing what has happened.”
Johnstone had intended to return to Iowa State University where he was studying electronics technology in the fall following his work with the county. It wasn’t until he took an Army physical and discovered he was red/green color blind that he knew his path was definitely going to change.
Not sure what to do with himself, Johnstone stayed working with the county through the fall and winter, completing the Reasnor road project and helping survey additional roads for future paving.
“I figured out that I loved the math, I loved the challenge of this. I love being outside, I was a farm kid,” Johnstone said.
In March 1967, Johnstone entered the Army becoming a medic. He spent 14 months in Germany and another year in Vietnam before returning home in 1970 to a full-time position with the Jasper County Highway Department.
A few years later, Johnstone met the woman who would later become his wife, Jan.
“I ended up with a wife that made me a deal that she would put me through four years of Iowa State if I would buy her a horse when I got out. There are still two horses running around our acreage today,” Johnstone said.
Upon completing school in 1979, Johnstone worked in the private sector in Iowa City and Central Iowa before opening his own firm in 2001. In that time, technology has advanced to turn the four man crew into a one man job.
“In the mid-70s with the invention of the electronic distance meter which took distance either by laser or infrared light, and we went down to two-man crews. We stayed at two-man crews until about the early 2000s when GPS started. Even then, you were still using two many crews because the RTS didn’t come into affordability until 2009 to 2012,” Johnstone said. “Now, I can go out with a RTS on my own and double the efficiency of what we used to be able to do with the older total station when we had a two-man crew. The technology is absolutely amazing.”
Johnstone is quick to thank the men that helped get him to where he is today including Cabalka, former county licensed Land surveyor J. Glen Ponder and former highway designer Bill Ponder. He invited his former mentors to a lunch to thank for their guidance in a line of work that he loves and has made a life of.
“Learning under Glen Ponder, Glen was an excellent surveyor and I learned a ton from him. He was doing things so well ahead of getting laws passed that actually put things in code that he was already doing it,” Johnstone said.
The gentlemen enjoyed the gathering, reminiscing about years previous and joking about Johnstone as former summer help.
“You know Bill, if the rest of the summer help is as grateful as Craig is, we would be having free lunches all of the time,” Cabalka said.
Even with 50 years under his belt, Johnstone does not see and end to his career any time soon.
“As long as God will give me the brains and ability to do it, and I absolutely love it, I see no reason to retire. It is one of those things that he gave me the chance to do and the abilities and I love the math, science, law and history, it is just a neat job.”
Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com