When John Schaufelberger joined the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1960s and began working on construction projects around the world, he wasn’t just building cities and tunnels and levees. He was constructing a future he didn’t know about yet.

Schaufelberger’s 30-year military career taught him the value of building relationships as he brought together people from different countries and industries as well as the public and private sectors to achieve common goals. After retiring from the Army in 1994, he launched a new career as a professor and author while serving in leadership roles for associations representing the construction industry and education. He now serves as dean emeritus of the College of Built Environments and professor emeritus for construction management at the University of Washington.

“It’s not so much what you do, it’s what you leave behind,” Schaufelberger says. “It’s how you develop other people with their careers, how you develop other people for new positions or to take your place.”

To this end, Schaufelberger has spent decades serving on boards, leading task forces, judging engineering competitions and tirelessly lending his expertise to organizations like the Schools of Construction (ASC), the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) and the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE).

当他第一次到达华盛顿大学时，他无法找到合适的教科书来教建筑设备管理，因此他写了自己的书，并继续出版了九本关于从成本估算到领导力和道德规范的一切的建筑教科书。

A 100-year flood in 1993 required extensive recovery efforts on the Missouri River, shown near Jefferson City, Mo. While the levees protecting cities mostly held, hundreds of irrigation levees protecting farmland failed.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

Military Career

Schaufelberger在爱达荷州南部长大，他是一家电力公司的电气工程师的儿子，而他又在爱达荷大学学习了电气工程。毕业后，他加入了陆军工程兵团，前往韩国第一次任务。在军团中，他将留下来，获得硕士学位以及土木工程博士学位并参加哈佛大学奖学金。Schaufelberger还在1970年代在West Point教学员，以支付其研究生教育费用。

1983年，他抵达沙特阿拉伯，帮助建造国王哈立德军事城市，这是一个全新的大都市，在科威特边境附近，人口为75,000。规模巨大；Schaufelberger说，在建设高峰期，有35,000人正在从事该项目，每天造成价值300万美元的建设。整个城市都采用预制混凝土建造，夏季温度上升至130度，大部分混凝土都放在晚上，卡车在混合物中携带冰而不是水。

Schaufelberger在1980年代领导了一个由不同的国籍和专业知识水平的多元化团队，在沙特阿拉伯建造了Khalid Morial City Khalid军事城市。
照片由美国工程兵团提供

As a lieutenant colonel and area engineer for construction, Schaufelberger faced an array of challenges, from figuring out ways to dispose of contaminated waste to convincing some crews not to work seven days a week. He also guided a group of young Saudi engineers who had received their educations overseas and returned to their country to help lead the building effort. Whenever these young men saw design problems or other issues, they would write Schaufelberger about their solutions.

他说：“他们会给我发送这些非常奇怪的信件，我有一个约旦人为我工作，他会用英语翻译它们。”这些人经常在深夜工作，所以舒菲尔伯格将在下午5点左右前往他们的办公室。喝茶并谈论问题。

“There were some heated arguments,” he admits. “I told them, ‘Here are the letters. If you really want me to do what you have written here, just send the letters back.’ I never got the letters back.”

Back in the U.S., Schaufelberger served as contracting officer for an ambitious tunnel project in San Antonio. The tunnels were designed to receive extra water from the San Antonio River during floods, with huge pumps to bring the water up again during periods of low river flow. The challenges were many: The boring machine needed to be reconstructed over the first four or five months, causing disruptive delays, and Schaufelberger increasingly found himself in a public role, answering questions about hiring locally and explaining the work as it progressed.

Schaufelberger’s last major operation with the Army involved flood recovery projects on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers after a 100-year flood event in 1993. At its peak, the flood created a lake 10 miles wide where the two rivers meet. While the levees protecting cities mostly held, hundreds of irrigation levees protecting farmland failed. Schaufelberger received $100 million for flood recovery—mostly levee reconstruction—and finished the project with $10 million to spare. And again, he found himself in the public eye.

Schaufelberger说：“每个国会议员和参议员都想知道我在做什么。”“您确实必须让公众了解。无论如何，人们对河流的管理有很多公众的兴趣。上游的人们担心娱乐。下游的人们担心航行，两者都受到洪水的影响。”

Schaufelberger和学生at a light rail construction site. He has written 10 construction management textbooks and taken leadership roles in expanding and promoting construction education.
Photo courtesy of John Schaufelberger

Teacher and Scholar

After mandatory retirement from the Army in 1994, Schaufelberger, then 52, had to decide what to do next. Positive memories of teaching at West Point prompted him to apply to the department of construction management at the University of Washington. After seven years as a professor, he was invited to become department chair, and then dean. Schaufelberger continued to teach and write, applying his military training and lessons learned from projects all over the world.

“学术界与军队完全不同，因为在军队中，每个人在一起。在学术界，每个教职员工都是独立的，”他说。“但是做出决定对我来说从来都不困难。在我看来，什么都不做不是行动，但这在学术界并不是典型的。”

Such leadership and communication skills apply to any construction project, Schaufelberger says. “We teach the technical skills, but that’s only half of the skill sets they need. The other half are how to deal with people because construction is very collaborative. You’ve got people from many different entities, maybe subcontractors, buyers, contractors, all working together. And they all come from different companies, and they have different cultures. Somehow, you’ve got to get them all together going in the same direction. But you’ve got to take care of them, understand them and listen to them.”

卡梅伦·贝尔（Cameron Bell）进入华盛顿大学学习土木工程，但舒菲尔伯格（Schaufelberg新利lucker）的课程引发了人们对建筑管理的兴趣。他现在是Northwest Construction Inc.的建筑经理，并且经常与他的前教授在行业小组，活动和比赛中合作。

“John got me excited about wanting to take on a challenge and never being afraid to take on new challenges,” Bell says. “For me, that is super important in our industry because of all the unknowns and the fact that no two jobs are the same. It’s easy to find yourself in uncomfortable situations, but he taught me that’s an opportunity to do something great and to not be afraid.”

Schaufelberger joined the Army after graduating from the University of Idaho. During his service, he built projects around the world, earned a PhD in civil engineering and taught at West Point.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Army

One of the biggest challenges the industry faces, Schaufelberger believes, is the shortage of a skilled workforce. In the 27 years since he retired from the Army, he’s worked to strengthen and promote construction education, taking numerous leadership roles in the industry. At the Associated General Contractors, Schaufelberger joined the board of the AGC Education and Research Foundation, chaired the AGC Foundation’s case study task force and served on its industry residency task force. He has also served on the board of AGC of Washington and the AGC of Washington Education Foundation. He became active in the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) in 2002, serving on the board and leading the accreditation committee from 2012 to 2017. He currently serves as ACCE board chairman.

“John’s a builder of people who isn’t confined to a singular area,” says C. Ben Farrow, a professor of architecture and associate dean at Auburn University. Farrow also serves as president of the Associated Schools of Construction, where Schaufelberger has mentored, developed and supported teachers, faculty and other leaders at construction schools around the world.

“One of John’s great strengths is his ability to connect with people,” Farrow says. “He can really understand where that person is, and then help that person almost self-realize some of the challenges ahead and some of the things that they should be thinking about.”