Editor's note: Morris and Lynn Walker are working to make "Legends and Stories from the Heart of the Valley," a documentary film about Corvallis' first 150 years. Each Saturday, they share tidbits from Corvallis that they've uncovered during their work. You can contact the Walkers at heartofthevalley@yahoo.com.

"Do good work, make a profit, and enjoy life!"

- Jim Howland

Many citizens of Corvallis will remember the late Jim Howland as one of the cofounders of CH2M Hill, the largest company ever born in our town. Sometimes called CH2M, the firm went into business in 1946 in the Rennie Smith building downtown and has become a world-famous engineering powerhouse.

When their respected professor, Dr. Fred Merryfield, asked Howland, Holly Cornell and Burke Hayes to join forces with him, they formed CH2M. After being discharged from active duty during World War II, the four Oregon State graduates set out, in Howland's words, "to do good work, make a profit and enjoy life!"

Their first goal was to create a water-treatment plant in Corvallis to clean up the Willamette River. They succeeded: The Taylor Water Treatment Plant was finished in 1949.

It would take volumes to chronicle even a small part of what this company accomplished over the years around the world. In 1971, the company added another associate to the mix, with the firm of another OSU graduate, Clair A. Hill from Redding, Calif. From that point on, the company was called CH2M Hill. It grew exponentially. Among many other projects, it began working on Superfund projects in 1982. Here's one example: In 1995, CH2M Hill began working on a seemingly impossible task, the closure and cleanup of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Facility near Denver, Colo.

In a partnership with Kaiser Group Holdings, the joint venture completed the project in 2005, shaving more than 60 years off the original schedule and saving taxpayers $30 billion.

A few years ago, a friend who worked for CH2M Hill explained that Jim was looking for someone to volunteer their services to create a video about the slide show he had produced about his years working with the Madison Avenue Task Force. We were glad to volunteer, although we knew little then about Jim Howland, his wife, Ruth, or CH2M Hill.

Little did we know that when we met Ruth and Jim Howland, they would become two of our best friends.

At the time we met for that first video interview, Jim already had begun to be affected by Lou Gehrig's disease, although he was still mobile to a degree. We learned much in that first priceless video interview. We visited the Howlands many times since then and although we watched Jim become more and more debilitated by the disease, it never affected his spirit, his glow, his drive or his love for his family and his community.

About 10 months ago when we started writing this weekly column, we would receive e-mail messages from Jim every once in a while telling us how much he and Ruth enjoyed the stories and photos we featured in "Clips in Time" and then filling us in on facts we didn't know. Jim personally typed each letter he sent via e-mail.

We have been working on a script about the history of CH2M Hill in Corvallis for some time. At one point about six weeks ago, we decided to send the script to Jim to ask him if everything was correct. We had remembered something that he had said in his interview years earlier and I wrote it into the script.

After we sent that version of the CH2M script, he suggested changes and pointed out that we had misquoted what he had said years ago on camera. We went back and watched the interview again. He was right.

In our interview, Jim talked about the success of CH2M and about the thrill he shared with so many Corvallis citizens in creating and coordinating the Madison Avenue Task Force. But he happily admitted that the greatest thing he ever did in his life was to meet his wife, Ruth, of nearly 70 years and raise their family in this wonderful community.

Jim Howland was an amazing individual, a human being some would call "a point of light." He will be missed, but his spirit will continue to be a beacon of light in Corvallis forever.