Gerald R. Olson

CEEAA Distinguished Alumni Award, 2017

For an outstanding career providing technical expertise and practical leadership in the field of geotechnical engineering; for steadfast guidance and vision in establishing Terracon as one of the foremost engineering firms in the country with more than 3,500 employees in 130 offices serving all 50 states; and for support for future generations of engineers in their higher education pursuits.

Biography

Gerald R. Olson earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1956. After graduation, Olson worked for Chicago Bridge and Iron Company as a structural engineer before enrolling at Iowa State University to earn his M.S. in Civil Engineering. It was during this time that he switched fields from Structural Engineering to Soil Engineering.

After earning his master’s, Olson went to work for the Corps of Engineers in Chicago. He soon moved to Soil Testing Services, where he spent the next six years as a project manager, leading field inspections on deep foundation construction.

In early 1965, Olson joined with Soil Testing Services and one other firm to start a new company called Soil Testing Services of Iowa. Olson soon bought out the other firms and changed the company name to Terracon. Terracon, now entirely employee owned, continued to grow and had approximately 37 offices and over 1,000 employees when Olson retired in late 1998.

In response to the increasing difficulty for geotechnical firms to obtain professional liability insurance in the 1970s, Terracon and a group of similar firms started Terra Insurance Co. Olson became a Director in the late 1980’s and Chairman in 1993. He remained chairman until 1998.