The Professional Land Surveyor, who serves as a Senior Client Manager and Technical Services Manager for engineering firm C.S. Davidson, has dedicated more than 40 years of his life to a craft that’s as much about people as it is about precision.
Behind every infrastructure project, every new bridge, every gas line or storm drain lies the meticulous work of surveyors such as Eric Gladhill, who is driven by a passion for precision and has a penchant for attracting quirky stories. In March 2024, he celebrated 25 years with civil engineering firm C.S. Davidson.
Throughout a quarter-century working with the Professional Land Surveying team at C.S. Davidson, Eric has helped engineer the infrastructure of numerous communities throughout Pennsylvania. In the process, he has written two books, about the people he has met along the way, the lessons he has learned, and about his childhood.
From art school maverick to senior manager
Even as a teenager, Eric was drawn to the world of land surveying. But daunted by the study of physics and calculus in high school, he set that dream aside and attended art school, seeking to express himself through creativity rather than mathematics.
The subjective realm of art soon proved not for him.
“I flunked out of art school at Maryland Institute College of Art,” he says. “I hated the city and just hated the instructors, and so I just didn’t do well there.”
Eric’s brother, a surveyor, suggested he try his hand at entry-level drafting at a surveying firm. At age 17, with no experience or higher education besides a couple of art school classes, Eric was offered a position on a survey crew.
Over the next 20 years, he would work for six firms, hacking his way through swamps, balancing on steel bridge beams without harness or helmet, and learning the intricacies of measuring and mapping the land to within a centimeter for engineering projects.
In 1999, Eric joined the C.S. Davidson Gettysburg team and helped launch its Professional Land Surveying crew. Now, as a Senior Client Manager and Technical Services Manager for the company, he guides his team and clients as they shape the future of surveying.
Making dreams into reality
Throughout Eric’s more than four-decade career, technological advancements have revolutionized the field of surveying. From using transits and steel chains while working as a teen to currently employing state-of-the-art GPS and laser scanning technology that can guide the blades of bulldozers, Eric has witnessed the evolution of surveying.
“We’ve gone beyond what I could have ever imagined,” he says, reflecting on the strides made in the profession.
Amid the changing technology, Eric’s focus always has remained on the people he serves. Every engineering project, big or small, begins with a survey to lay the foundation for infrastructure that will impact communities. Whether working on a municipal stormwater system or developing the Adams County Commerce Center, Eric takes pride in the fact that his expertise has helped make communities better places to live and work.
“We can make people’s dreams come true,” he says, recounting a story of a young couple who bought a tract of land in Central Pennsylvania and wanted to raise their family on a farm.
To make the dream a reality, they needed to subdivide lots at the edges of their land. Eric and his team conducted the survey and helped the couple establish their farm and the family’s legacy.
Stories from the field
Eric incorporated that and many other stories and life lessons into a memoir titled “Finding My Boundaries: Interesting People I’ve Met While Surveying,” released on Amazon in 2021. A follow-up memoir, about his experiences growing up in Adams County, titled “Going Home: In My Mind,” was published later that year.
Eric is writing a work of fiction to bring to life with a twist his tumultuous, rebellious teen years. He’s a regular contributor to xyHt, a magazine for geospatial professionals, and other publications.
When not serving clients at C.S. Davidson or writing a memoir or a novel, Eric often can be found in the dugout. He’s a seasoned baseball player in a vintage 1863 bare-hand league and an over-40 old-timers league. He also is an avid drummer and plays in the Gettysburg-based rock band Jalopy Deluxe.
“I just hope that people would see that I did my best to serve my fellow man and to serve God and do well with what I do,” Eric says.