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From Lima, With Love

Sometimes, engineers touch lives in ways they never imagined... and a life is forever changed.

A chance meeting on a train near Machu Picchu in Peru paved the way for Patricia Abón to study computer engineering at OSU, where she also takes yoga and dance classes.

A retired chairman of the board of one of the world's most successful engineering firms and his wife travel to Peru to attend a friend's wedding in Lima. They miss their train near Machu Picchu and wind up sitting squeezed onto the steps of the last train of the day, which is packed beyond capacity with chattering students from an all-girls Catholic high school in Lima. Several of the students insist that the couple take their seats inside the train car. Trying out their English, the students learn the man is an engineer. One of the young women announces that her dream is to become an engineer, too. Two years later, she's studying computer engineering at OSU and refers to the engineering executive and his wife as her American grandparents.

This is the true story of how OSU Civil Engineering alumnus Jim Poirot, who spent more than 42 years with CH2M HILL, and his wife Raeda (also an OSU alumnus) helped make it possible for Peruvian Patricia Abón to study engineering at Oregon State.

"The girls on the train joked about adopting us as their grandparents," Jim says. "The next morning we just happened to see them on the streets of Cusco, and they ran up to us, calling 'Grandma! Grandpa!' "

Jim had given Abón his business card, and when he and Raeda returned to the United States, they found two e-mails from her waiting. "She was the one who took the initiative to continue the contact and made it very clear that she wanted to become an engineer," Jim says.

The Poirots helped Abón apply for admission and scholarships at OSU, and sponsored her visa application. Everything clicked and she enrolled last fall, funded by a prestigious Provost's Scholarship and an International Cultural Service Program Scholarship.

"During her first quarter at OSU she struggled a little, the second quarter she did better, and the third she got straight A's," Jim says proudly.

Paty, as the Poirot's fondly call Abón, visits their Roseburg home during holidays and school breaks. "And she still calls us Grandma and Grandpa," Raeda says.

This past summer Abón worked as an intern doing computer engineering for OSU's new Tsunami Wave Basin, part of the research cluster called the Kiewit Center for Infrastructure & Transportation. In addition to computers, her other interests include dance, basketball, yoga, Tae Kwon Do, and dog obedience. "I like to develop many areas of my life," she says. "Not only my career."

One of this country's most respected engineering leaders, Jim graduated from OSU in 1953 and was the 35th employee of CH2M HILL when he joined the company that same year. He quickly moved up the ranks to ultimately serve as chairman of the board before his retirement in 1995.

Jim first met Raeda in 8th grade, they started dating while at Roseburg High School, and married after his junior year at OSU, where Jim was studying civil engineering and Raeda business administration.

At commencement last June, OSU conferred an honorary doctorate degree on former CH2M HILL chairman of the board, Jim Poirot. His wife Raeda and Paty helped him celebrate.

Raeda also worked at CH2M HILL, but only for one week. "Everybody at the company was sick with the flu, so Jim asked me if I could help out," Raeda says. "I was pregnant with our first baby, but I went in and worked Monday through Friday, and had the baby on Saturday!"

Jim has also served as president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vice president of the Paris-based World Federation of Engineering Organizations, and as a founding board member of the World Engineering Partnership for Sustainable Development. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineers, and received an honorary doctorate degree from OSU this year in recognition of his engineering leadership and involvement in worldwide sustainability initiatives, including the Earth Charter. In 2000, he participated in launching the Earth Charter in The Hague, Netherlands, speaking at the ceremony attended by many environmental leaders, including Mikhail Gorbachev.

"Some of my most satisfying work has been helping transfer sustainable technologies to developing countries," Jim says.

Thanks to their generosity and compassion--and a chance meeting on a crowded train--the Poirot's have helped transfer their passion for engineering to Abón, who will help keep her "grandfather's" passion for engineering alive, in her native Peru. She plans to get a graduate degree before returning to Lima, where she hopes to "make positive changes in my country." Her dream is to found and grow a company "to help lower the unemployment rate among my people," she says.