<Begin Segment 22>

TI: And so at San Diego State, what were you studying?

JK: Engineering. I went to, I started with the, on the GI Bill, and so I started in basic civil engineering.

TI: And why engineering? What was it about engineering that was interesting?

JK: You know, on my navy separation papers, it says, "What are you gonna do?" And I put down I was gonna become an electrical engineer. Then I have an auntie -- you remember I told you about my Uncle Dave that taught the Japanese language school? His wife, Auntie Kumi, she said that I told her, like when I was twelve years old, that I wanted to be an engineer, I was gonna become an engineer. I thought I was gonna be a Greyhound bus driver. I thought that was, I'd see the world, travel on the bus, wear that snappy uniform. But she said that, so anyway, yeah. Now, I switched from electrical engineering to civil engineering because I was having great difficulties with calculus, and so when I was going to school on GI Bill and I was flunking calculus, the VA sent me to psychiatrists and everybody, says, "You ought to consider some other place to go." So I settled on civil engineering and I, my specialty is water and wastewater, so it's been a very rewarding career. Life goes where you take, it goes.

TI: And so you, so from San Diego State, earlier you talked about Berkeley, so from San Diego State, you completed your engineering at Berkeley?

JK: Yeah.

TI: So you had your four year degree, civil engineering.

JK: Yeah, four years. I graduated in '52.

TI: Okay. And I think during the break we talked about this, so in a month or so you will have a sixty-year career in engineering.

JK: Yeah.

TI: 'Cause you are still working at eighty-three.

JK: Oh yeah, I'm still going to the office. In fact, I'm going to a meeting this afternoon in L.A., part of my job.

TI: So, and your specialty is waterworks?

JK: Water supply and wastewater, and I've also done quite a bit of municipal engineering, and that's like city engineering where you get involved in the infrastructure of the city, streets, storm drains and street lighting, bridges and things. I don't design 'em, per se, but it's all, that development activities, subdivisions and big developments. Yeah, I did all that stuff.

TI: So in your sixty-year career, what's your biggest highlight?

JK: Well, frankly, I'm, I think I would classify my engineering as a classic grunt, in the sense that I did, I just, I started out early on as a public health engineer. That's my fist gig after I got out of college. So my job was to inspect water, public water systems, public sewer systems, and be involved in the public health aspects of the water supply and wastewater treatment disposal. Then I graduated from that into municipal engineering, and my first assignment was, like, one of the programs, the city public works department, I was -- in a small town, Carlsbad -- I ran, I was responsible for the water system and sewer system. Then I went on from that, continued, and I got to the level of management of the water agency. But you know, a lot of construction -- in fact, I recall probably enjoying the most the construction part of it 'cause I like being outdoors, smoking a cigar, acting important, but that part of it, where I'm building something. Yes, we designed a lot of things.

TI: Was there a particular project, though, that you felt really good about in terms of building something?

JK: Sure. In fact, I'm working on a project right now that our firm -- I ultimately established an engineering firm, small firm -- we did the design of this project in the middle '80s and we're back on that same site. We're doing some remedial work at that site. People look at it and they just see my name on the plans and stuff. "Golly," and they say, "Is this you?" And I say, "Of course it is, man." [Laughs]

TI: Wow. So this was something you had done thirty years ago, when you were a small firm.

JK: Yeah.

TI: And now you're with a consulting, or helping with a much larger firm, and they're going back and doing this.

JK: Yeah. In fact, this particular water agency in Carlsbad, they invited me back to talk to 'em, and I started, and it was interesting, this young man has only been there eight years but he wanted to know the history of the water system. And I said, "Okay, I can tell you 'cause I was here when this entire water system was first developed." I started in 1957. And I said, "I came to the area in 1957, and so I've been, I've watched this system grow from its inception." So I was very pleased that he, one, he'd invite me, and two, he seemed very, very pleased that I would, somebody would share some of that history with him. And I was very, I was a little surprised. I was very energized that a younger guy is that interested, he wants to really get into it.

TI: Well, it's pretty unusual. I mean, I'm an engineer also by training, and to have someone who has that kind of knowledge, fifty-five years' worth of knowledge on a particular system is very unusual because oftentimes you come in and there might be documentation, but rarely do you find a person who actually was there.

JK: Well yeah, that context, I guess I would do what they today, knowledge transfer. Yeah, I'm more than happy to share this stuff with you. He seemed genuinely intrigued by the, some of the stuff I shared with him.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.