By Stephen Kirk, FSAVE – Dean, College of Fellows
The College of Fellows is pleased to announce the elevation of two members of SAVE International to Fellow: Charles R. McDuff, FSAVE and Robert J. Rude, FSAVE.
The process of selection starts with a sponsor completing the fellow’s application. Letters of recommendation are also a part of the submittal. A panel of five was assembled to vet the applications. This year the panel consisted of Richard Harrington, Howard Ellegant, Istvan Tarjani, Hisaya Yokoto, and Stephen Kirk. All SAVE Fellows then cast their vote. Only two may be selected in a given year.
Charles R. McDuff is a professional Engineer, a Certified Value Specialist – Life (CVS-Life) and a LEED accredited professional. He served on the SAVE Certification Board for nine years and was the SAVE Atlanta chapter president.
Charles graduated from the Missouri School of Mines in civil engineering and served in Vietnam receiving the Army Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star Medal. When he returned from service, he received ministerial training at Eden Theological Seminary.
For his value engineering work, Charles received the Department of Defense (DoD) Award for Outstanding Value Engineering (VE) on a maintenance hangar at the Naval Air Station Oceana. This DoD Award was presented jointly to Charles and Luis Venegas, PE, FSAVE. He also received the Commander’s Coin of Excellence for his work on the Military Free Fall School, Special Operations Command, at the Yuma Proving Grounds, in Arizona.
According to management at Atkins where Charles worked for 15 years, he was known as a strong advocate for the work of the SAVE organization, and a big promoter of the Value Methodology (VM) as a profession. Charles was recognized for his skills and willingness to participate (and excel) on difficult assignments. He maintained a positive “can-do” attitude that spread throughout the organization. Charles mentored others while performing assignments, particularly VE studies. He gave special attention to detail and to getting the job done right. Charles helped start a VE program at Atkins that continues to serve clients today.
Charles was likely one of the first VE team leaders to incorporate into the VE workshop setting the practice of using subjective Risk Registers on construction projects. He began using Risk Registers during the 1990s to help focus the VE team on risks that should be monetized within the project cost estimate. These Risk Registers were also used to help generate creative ideas in the creative phase associated with construction VE work.
Charles was the project manager for developing construction cost estimates for all $12.4 Billion in construction projects overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), New Orleans District, following hurricane Katrina. The VE workshop led by Charles resulted in over $300 million in documented savings. For this effort and the work to reconcile the individual estimates and schedules for all $12.4 Billion in projects, the Atkins team received the USACE Chief of Engineer’s Coin of Excellence.
- Rindt-McDuff Associates, Inc., Marietta, Georgia (1980-1989)
- Post Buckley Schuh & Jernigan (PBS&J) / Atkins North America (2004-present)
- Downey & Scott, LLC, a certified small business enterprise (2009-present)
- Vali Cooper Intl, a service-disabled veteran owned small business (2011-present)
- U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (2012-present)
Charles was a member of the team that introduced VE/VM to the Office of Management and Budget, City of New York, serving as a trainer of NYC OMB staff (1980). He has mentored several professionals who have attained AVS, VMA and CVS accreditation. Charles introduced the use of Monte Carlo style risk analysis for construction cost estimates within the VE/VM methodology.
Charles lives with his wife Diane in Palisade, Colorado. He continues to work from his home on an as-needed basis for friends and clients in the VM arena. In recent years, Charles has taken up ham radio operation as a serious hobby and holds the highest-class license, i.e., extra class. Other pursuits include wildlife and scenery photography in the mountains and high desert country of western Colorado.
Charles wishes to thank all those nice people he has worked with and for over his career. A special mention must be made to the wonderful effort made by Al Adelgren, PE, CVS-Life. Al worked diligently on many days to assemble the application package that resulted in Charles’ election to the College of Fellows. Also, Charles would like to note, with great appreciation, the influence that the late Ed Nichols, PE, CVS had on his developmental years as he ventured into the practice of VE. Ed served with technical skill, great good humor and with a dedication to the younger members of SAVE. Also, a word of recognition for the folks at Lewis & Zimmerman including Mary Ann Lewis, Howard Greenfield, Eric Mion, Dave Hamilton and the late George Stryker. Thanks are offered for their mentoring, patience and support during the 13 years that Charles worked at Lewis & Zimmerman.
Robert (Bob) J. Rude is a professional engineer, professional land surveyor and a Certified Value Specialist – Life (CVS-Life). He has served on the SAVE Certification Board since 2013 and is currently the chairman. Bob was president of the SAVE Cascadia chapter in 1987-89 and regional vice president in 1989-91. He received the SAVE Presidential Citation for this work on the Certification Board in 2018.
Bob graduated from Washington State University with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. Prior to his first value study in 1983, Bob accrued an additional 18 years in the design and construction of industrial buildings and transportation projects.
Bob’s activities include an excellent history of teaching the VM, promoting the VM, and creating VM programs with other organizations. He exemplifies the high standards of technical competence and ethical conduct and serves as an ambassador of SAVE. Bob helped develop what was referred to as Value Planning for the Port Authority of New Jersey.
As chairman of the SAVE Certification Board, Bob helped create the development of the Core Competencies and Learning Objectives that align with ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standards and identify the requirements for competency within the SAVE profession for VMA and CVS certification. Bob coordinated the effort to align the core competencies, learning objectives, certification exams, and training material to improve the professional capabilities of SAVE recognized professionals. He re-activated the relations and integration of the SAVE international affiliate members into the Certification Program.
In 1989, Bob was part of the entourage that went to the second world SAVE Conference in Sal Palo, Brazil. He presented on how to integrate constructability into the VM. Bob has generated multiple presentations and papers for SAVE, government agencies, state organizations for FAST Diagramming, the use of the VM, the benefits of VM, and the advantages of achieving CVS certification. He was part of the team that prepared, presented, and distributed the VM to the Congressional Reception of Washington, DC.
Bob has given countless presentations to the American Public Works Association, American Institute of Architects, and the Council for Infrastructure Financing Authority on the benefits of using VM and certified SAVE recognized professionals.
Bob was also part of the team that developed Function Based Influence Diagramming, which is a way of simplifying the interrelations of functions in a three-dimensional way. He was also part of the team that created “function based mission statement development,” a way of starting out a value workshop where no design exists, or the design is not yet agreed upon by the stakeholders. The effort helps identify what must this project do to become successful using the VM verb-noun approach. Then the team collapses those functions into 3-5 core functions. Finally, the team will write a narrative statement which becomes the purpose of the project is (to include the 3-5 core functions). These core functions will be used as basic functions to create the FAST diagram.
Bob applied the VM for the Port Authority of New Jersey, New Arrivals Building at JFK airport. The result accomplished a way to reduce the project by 50% using the VM. This was accepted and the savings were realized. Bob also applied the VM to a Supplemental Energy project for Government Agency that has captured three national energy awards. A major worldwide AE firm created a scope that resulted in at 15 to 16-million-dollar project. Using VM, the results was achieving all the basic functions using 3 to 4 million-dollar-project. The results in major worldwide AE firm revisiting how they accomplished VE in their projects.
Bob used the VM Value Planning approach to benefit the Lakefair summer festival and parade (3rd largest in the State of Washington). He worked with the event planning committee, using a FAST model, to help plan for the next 10 years to improve the festival. Bob also helped reorganize the Child Protective Services in New York, which reduced the effort for development and review by 50% and made submissions more effective.
Bob was part of the leadership team that helped integrate risk analysis/modeling into the VM for New York/New Jersey Port Authority, including the team that developed the At-Risk software program which is still being used today on projects.
Bob helped establish the following value programs:
- State of Washington, Transportation Improvement Board
- Part of the leadership that set up value program for Ministry of Transportation in Ontario
- Part of the leadership that set up value program for Metropolitan Water District for Southern California
- Part of the leadership that fined tune the value program at the New York/New Jersey Port Authority
- Part of the leadership that set up the value program at the San Diego Water Department
- Part of the leadership that set up value program at the San Diego Wastewater Department
Bob has been involved with Boy Scouts of America for 30+ years and is an Eagle Scout. He has completed Pro bono work for City of Olympia to improve activities and events in the community as well as the Washington State Department of Fish and Game.
Bob would like to thank first and foremost his wife Karen for living with a part time husband. His value career was shaped by many of the originals, most of which are not with us. They have formed the pillars of his experience – they are Harvey Childs, Tom Cook Senior, Al Dell’Isola, Pete Maganie, Ted Fowler, Rudy Kempter and Bob Harvey.
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