John Keller '91, who has engineering in his blood

What do you do now and what has your career been like so far?

I’m president of Keller Construction (East Greenbush, N.Y.) and the third generation to head the business. I didn’t go into the design side like a lot of my classmates but went more into the construction and field side because that was the goal. I couldn’t wait to work for the family business.

We’re a heavy highway company, but we’ve gotten into concrete, bridge work, directional drilling – a little bit of everything. We also do a lot of emergency work for the City of Albany, other municipalities and Union College. We’ve done a ton of other work at Union, too. I basically never left. It’s just been so rewarding working with the guys at Union. We were involved in the new Integrated Science and Engineering Complex and the Wold Center, as well as many other projects. When I think back to what campus looked like in 1987, it’s just amazing what we’ve been a part of. Seeing buildings go up and helping Union grow, that’s been really fun.

Civil engineering is a field that intersects many other disciplines. What makes it such a perfect crossroads for so many careers?

Civil engineering is basically everything outside, from roads to bridges – everything we need every day. And infrastructure is not getting better. Winters in the northeast put a beating on literally everything. Civil engineers need knowledge of all kinds of areas to keep up with fixing so many different things.

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How do you feel about civil engineering’s reinstatement?

I think it’s amazing. When civil was eliminated, it was sad. When I grew up in our company, a lot of engineers we dealt with were Union grads. To slowly see them disappear from the landscape has been sad.

How did your time at Union impact your path?

I always knew my path because I already had a passion for dirt and concrete and the family business. But I enjoyed my classes. They helped me figure out how to work through a problem, to figure out how to build things. That problem-solving mentality has been invaluable. Not a day goes by that I don’t use my education.