[ Richard A. “Rick” Smith, P.E., F.ASCE, founder of raSmith, has been named a fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Smith, at the age of 28, accepted the challenge of turning a struggling civil engineering and surveying firm into one of the state of Wisconsin’s leading multidiscipline firms, raSmith. He started the company with three founding principles: stability, quality, and innovation. This vision was based on his belief that you should treat people the way you would like to be treated and that the emphasis should be on long-term relationships. With just 10 employees at that time, raSmith provided civil engineering and land surveying services primarily to local government entities in southeastern Wisconsin.
The raSmith company has now grown to over 215 employees with seven office locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, and California and provides a wide range of consulting engineering services to both the private and public sectors. An award-winning firm, raSmith has completed projects locally and across the U.S. in the areas of site planning and design, structural engineering, municipal engineering, transportation and traffic, surveying, development management, ecological services, landscape architecture, LiDAR (3D laser scanning), UAS (unmanned aircraft systems), construction services, and geographic information systems.
Smith’s accomplishments and contributions to the civil engineering profession over the last 45 years are many. He prides himself on raSmith's commitment to quality design, and that close client contact is maintained throughout each stage of a project. Significant projects Smith has contributed to include the Pabst Farms Development, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin; City of Whitewater Wastewater Treatment Facility, Whitewater, Wisconsin; Franklin Business Park, City of Franklin, Wisconsin; Water System Master Plan, City of Oak Creek, Wisconsin; and the City of Kenosha Industrial Park Development, Kenosha, Wisconsin.
He has held leadership positions with several associations, including Marquette University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Advisory Board, the Management Resources Association (board member, 2004-2013), Xaverian Missionary Fathers Board (president, 2004-2020), Wisconsin Policy Forum (board member, 2004-2022), and Waukesha County Economic Development Corporation (president, 2006-2015).
In addition to ASCE, Smith has also been a member of several other organizations, among them the American Water Works Association, Wisconsin Wastewater Operators Association, American Council of Engineering Companies, Institute of Transportation Engineers, National and Wisconsin Society of Professional Engineers, and the Transportation Development Association. Since 2016, Smith has also been a member of Woodstock, a group of business leaders who meet on a monthly basis to discuss economics, leadership, operations, and other issues that face each business.
Smith earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Marquette University in Milwauk
