ROLLA, Mo. – The friends and family of Robert E. “Bob” Myers joined with officials and state employees in Rolla on June 11 as a state office building was named in his honor. From 1971 to 1997, Myers served as Missouri’s first State Land Surveyor. He passed away in 2019 at the age of 88.
Myers’ legacy includes modernizing the surveying profession in Missouri and helping preserve thousands of historical surveying records dating back to Missouri’s statehood. He also settled numerous boundary disputes within the state and obtained congressional approval to help define the border between Missouri and Nebraska as part of the Missouri-Nebraska Boundary Compact.
“Bob’s dedication and service to the state of Missouri will be forever memorialized by the naming of this building,” said current State Land Surveyor Scott Faenger during the ceremony.
Joining Faenger at the June 11 dedication were three of Myers children, sons Paul Myers and John Myers, as well as daughter Beth Dickerhoff.
“He worked long hours and spent weekends with mom and the four of us kids, and he couldn’t help but mix surveying with family life,” Dickerhoff said during the dedication. “I remember Sunday afternoon drives that often turned into turned into quests for lost markers, looking at levees, or boundaries, or whatever project he was working on. The grandkids also remember field trips looking for property corners, dams and Missouri’s biggest sinkholes.”
Several state officials were present June 11, including Kurt U. Schaefer, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
“Over a career of more than a quarter century, Bob carried on a legacy of professional surveying that stretched back to the founding of the United States,” Schaefer said. “By formally cutting this ribbon and unveiling this plaque, we not only honor the good work of Missouri’s first state surveyor, we commit ourselves to fulfilling the standards that allowed him to help shape this state.”
While Myers served as State Land Surveyor, the Land Survey Program was part of the Department of Natural Resources. It is now administered by the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Chris Chinn, the Department of Agriculture’s director, also helped preside over the dedication in Rolla.
“It is a pleasure to see this building dedicated to the name of a pioneer in land survey,” Chinn said. “The accurate location of property boundaries is critical to agriculture, and the legacy Bob Myers left on Missouri is still felt today in counties across our great state.”
State Rep. Don Mayhew, who is a professional surveyor, shared personal memories of working with Myers during the event.
“Bob was an even tempered and very technical guy who was a perfect fit to be the first state land surveyor,” Mayhew said. “He left us quite a legacy. It was under his tenure the state repository of surveying records was established and that we adopted the state minimum standards for surveying. Bob was truly instrumental in protecting everyone property here in the state of Missouri.”
Following the dedication, Myers’ family, friends and former coworkers shared memories and career achievements from his years in state service. They said Myers was part of seven-generation linage of professional surveyors that dated to before the United States won its independence. Myers also served as chief engineer of MoDNR’s Dam and Reservoir Safety Program for three years, was the Missouri Association of Registered Land Surveyors’ president in 1964 and was named Missouri Surveyor of the Year in 1992.
The Robert E. (Bob) Myers Building is located at 1251 Gale Drive in Rolla. It houses offices for the Department of Agriculture’s Land Survey Program as well as the Department of Natural Resources’ Waters Resources Center and Dam and Reservoir Safety Program.