Jon D. Raggett received a BSE from Princeton University in 1966, a MS from Stanford University in 1967 and a PhD from Princeton University in 1971, all from departments of civil engineering. His PhD thesis subject was the aeroelastic flutter vibrations of long-span bridges. He is a member of the honor societies Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Tau Beta Pi. He is a registered Structural Engineer in California and Washington, and registered Professional Engineer in Colorado.
From 1978 to 1997 he was president of J. D. Raggett and Associates, Inc., a structural engineering design and aerodynamics firm. From 1988 to the present he has been president of West Wind Laboratory, Inc., a wind engineering laboratory. He has been on the faculty of the engineering school at the University of Santa Clara from 1974 to 1978. He has been an adjunct professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Naval Postgraduate School from 1992 to the present. He is also a director of DERI, a non-profit organization that designs and builds schools in developing countries.