Construction executive receives alumni honor

PULLMAN, Wash. – Dick Colf, retired executive vice president of one of the largest construction companies in North America, was honored with the Washington State University Alumni Association (WSUAA) Alumni Achievement Award. 
 
Colf received the award April 26 when he was on campus to give a lecture as part of the College of Engineering and Architecture’s Lanning Lecture Series.
 
Colf began his career for Peter Kiewit Sons’, Inc., as a summer intern in 1965, working on a seven-mile stretch of I-90 east of Butte, Mont. That fall, he received a Kiewit scholarship that helped him finish his senior year at WSU.
 
After graduating in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, Colf went to work for Kiewit. He began as an engineer on grading projects for the Northwest district office in Walla Walla.
 
During his career, he worked on and supervised many construction projects, including highways, levees, jetties, oil industry facilities and dams. He was project manager on a $15 million, 450-person operation at Lewiston, Idaho, for the U.S. Corps of Engineers. It involved levee construction for the city of Lewiston made necessary by Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River.
 
Colf later spent two years managing work on the Trans-Alaska pipeline, where he was in charge of installing 22,000 vertical supports on the northernmost 220-mile section. He also managed the $128 million Terror Lake hydroelectric project on Kodiak Island, which included construction of a large dam, six-mile tunnel, penstock and powerhouse.
 
Colf later managed Kiewit’s Northwest district to an unprecedented 10 consecutive years as the company’s top performing district. He was named division manager in 1992 and at one point had executive management responsibility for six districts covering much of the United States and all of Canada.
 
He was selected to the board of directors in 1994 and the executive committee in 1998.  Although he retired in 2009, he remained a member of the board until 2012.
 
The Alumni Achievement Award is the highest honor bestowed by the WSUAA. Since 1970, less than 510 WSU alumni have received this prestigious award.