About Larry Oliver

Larry received his BSCE, MSCE, and Master’s in engineering management degrees in 1970, 1976, and 1983, respectively, from UMR.
He was one of the top wide receivers in the history of the Miner program, at one time holding various game, season, and career records for pass receiving and total points scored. He was a four-year letterman in football, captain of the 1969 football team, president of the M Club and has been inducted into the UMR Athletic Hall of Fame, both individually and as a member of the 1969 Football Team. He was the first soccer-style kicker to play at UMR.

While at UMR, Larry was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and participated in varsity, club, and intramural sports. He was the intramural wresting champion three years in a row and runner up two years. He was intramural horseshoe pitching champion in both singles and doubles for multiple years. He played intramural basketball, football, handball, soccer, softball, track, and volleyball and was on the traveling club rugby team. He also served as a graduate assistant coach for varsity football and varsity wrestling and played on the very successful traveling club soccer team while attending graduate school in 1974 and 1975. The success of the club soccer team during those years helped speed the introduction of soccer as a varsity sport at UMR.

He began his engineering career in 1970 with a four-year commitment as a commissioned officer with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (currently NOAA). He had duty assignments in Virginia, Alaska, Washington state, Maryland, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and California before resigning his commission in 1974 to return to UMR to pursue a M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering. After receiving his MSCE degree in 1976 he took a position with Sverdrup and Parcel in St. Louis, Mo. Sverdrup & Parcel became Sverdrup Corporation in 1977 and in 1999 became part of the larger Jacobs Engineering Group. During more than 36 years with Jacobs, Larry has been involved in a variety of municipal and industrial water, wastewater, storm water, and combined sewer overflow projects throughout the United States. He has had long-term assignments in Missouri, Oregon, California, Michigan, and Arizona. He worked on municipal wastewater treatment projects in Los Angeles (800 million gallons per day) and Detroit (1,000 mgd), two of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the United States. He currently is working as part of the Project Management Team for the expansion/upgrade of the Ina Road Wastewater Reclamation Facility in Tucson, Ariz.

Larry has been a member of ASCE and WEF since attending school at UMR and a member of NSPE since 1978. He is a registered professional engineer in multiple states and a past president of the Portland, Ore., chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI). He is also a member of the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA). He was inducted into the S&T Academy of Civil Engineers in 2010.
Larry and his wife, Carole, who first met 43 years ago on the front steps of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity in Rolla, Missouri, live in Tucson, Ariz. They have been happily married for 36 years, have three grown children (Jeffrey, Steven, and Kari), two fussy house cats (Sierra and Roxie), one daughter-in-law (Jennifer), and one grandchild (Mason).