Conversations with Retirees 

Introducing the People Behind the Stories 

From January through April 2008, I had the pleasure of interviewing several retirees 

whose careers date back to the late 1940’s. During individual interviews, they shared 

their memories of working for the Bureau of Public Roads and Federal Highway 

Administration out of our Vancouver office. In honor of the Federal Lands Highway 

Program 25th Anniversary, I am preparing a series of stories and vignettes in which I will 

be sharing some of their memories with you. This chronological overview of each of 

their careers is offered as an introduction to those stories. 

 – Marili Green Reilly 

Willis Grafe got his first survey 

experience in the Yukon in 1942-43 

working on the Alaskan Highway. After a 

stint in the Navy and a few terms at Oregon 

State, he joined the BPR’s engineer 

training program in 1948. In the 1950’s, he 

spent some time in Glacier National Park, 

as well as on some projects in Washington 

and Oregon, including North Santiam 

Highway, White Pass Road, and Smith 

River. From 1957 to 1969, he was Area 

Engineer in the Oregon Division. Then he 

went to headquarters, taking an early 

retirement in 1976. After ten years as Linn 

County (Oregon) County Engineer, he 

finally took full retirement, settling down 

to write a book about his experiences in the 

Yukon. 

Willis Grafe paused to document his work in the 

Yukon, circa 1942. Photo courtesy Willis Grafe. 

Ray Westby came to work in the Vancouver office in 1950 and spent the next 

nine years in the field on Federal lands projects. Many of the early projects he worked on 

were in Washington, including Loup Loup Highway, White Pass, and Heart O’ the Hills. 

He also spent several seasons in Oregon, working on the Smith River project and 

Canyonville-Azalea. He moved to Olympia and worked as an Area Engineer in the 

Washington Division from 1959 through 1969. He came back to Direct Federal as 

Construction Engineer in 1969 and was almost immediately put in charge of Design 

instead of Construction when the remaining aspects of Direct Federal work were moved 

from the Region Office in Portland to Vancouver. Ray retired as Chief of the Project 

Development Division in 1982. 
A bridge on the White Pass Highway, circa 1952. Photo courtesy Ray Westby.

Vern Ford was hired by the Vancouver office in 1954 and spent his first five 

years working in survey. Many of his early survey assignments were on Oregon projects, 

including Rogue River, Cascade Head, and Gumboot Road in the Wallowa Mountains. 

In the early 1960’s he spent a couple of seasons in Glacier National Park. Then he 

moved into construction, working again on Oregon projects: Cascade Lakes Highway, 

Mount Hood Highway, and others. After 22 years in the field, he came into the office in 

1976. By 1980, he had moved into PS&E, writing many of the special contract 

provisions for construction on roads around Mt. St. Helens. Then he moved into 

Programming, taking on financing responsibilities for projects around the volcano. He 

retired from that position in 1991. 

Fred Rogers joined the BPR training 

program in 1957. He was first assigned to the 

Headquarters bituminous lab on the National Airport 

property, followed by a year in the Georgia Division, 

then six months on a Baltimore Transportation Study 

before being assigned to direct federal work. 

Arriving in Vancouver in September 1961, he spent 

his first couple of years here working on survey 

teams. When he came into the office, he worked on 

BLM projects, mostly in western Oregon. Later in 

his career, he moved into technology transfer work, 

served as Construction Engineer for 1-2 years, and 

finished out his career January 2, 1999, as head of 

Right-of-Way. 

At right, a BPR truck on North Santiam Highway, five miles 

west of the summit, June 1950. WFLHD Archives.
John Bucholtz applied for 

a job at BPR after hearing 

about it from a neighbor. 

He had just completed the 

drafting program at Clark 

College in 1958, and was 

hired here as a draftsman. 

He had a few summer 

assignments to get some 

experience on surveying 

and construction projects, 

but his work was mainly in 

the office, moving from 

drafting to design to Chief 

of the Drafting Department 

over the course of his 

tenure. When CADD was

The south side of Building A along East Fifth Street, 1965. This 

building was later removed for the freeway. WFLHD Archives. 

introduced in this office, he 

was heavily involved in its 

implementation, and teaching engineers how to use the new system. He eventually 

headed up the CADD office. Having spent his entire career in the Vancouver office, 

John made particular note of the physical changes that were made to the building up until 

his retirement in 1993. 

Lyle Renz joined the training program 

in 1962 in Boise and spent some time 

in survey and construction inspection 

work on direct federal projects in 

Idaho, including Cascade Warm Lake 

Highway, the old Warren Wagon Road, 

Lolo Pass, and projects around the 

south fork of the Clearwater. After the 

training program, he was assigned to 

the Oregon Division in Salem and spent 

two years as assistant engineering 

coordinator for direct federal projects. 

At the time, construction management 

for direct federal projects was handled 

by the Divisions, and Lyle worked his 

way up to construction engineer and

construction management positions 

until 1971 when he left direct federal 

A culvert is moved into place on US Hwy 10 in Idaho in 

the 1960’s. WFLHD Archives. 

work. He had several assignments in Federal-Aid offices, retiring from the position of 

Division Administrator in the Illinois Division in 1994.
Jim Hall entered the training program in 1964, and spent some time in the Region 

Office in Portland. It was during a hydraulics review of direct federal projects during that 

time that he got some of his earliest exposure to the direct federal program. After 

graduating, he was assigned to the D.C. Division. He then went into headquarters to 

work in Demonstration Projects. Jim became Chief of the Federal Lands Division in 

headquarters in 1974, about the time FHWA decided to reassign responsibility for forest 

highway design and construction to the States. The program was moved back to direct 

Federal offices around 1978, the year he came to Vancouver to become our Division 

Engineer. 

By 2006 “Building A” was long since gone, but the tree remained. It, too, 

has since been removed. WFLHD Archives. 

If you have comments about this document or the interviews, please email me at 

marili.reilly@fhwa.dot.gov. 

-- Marili Green Reilly