About Jim Kirby, PE

Jim Kirby earned his bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Missouri S&T in 1963. He joined Black and Veatch, Consulting Engineers and over the next 33 years amassed an impressive career in responsible leadership and in the planning, design and construction of large water resources projects, water supply and treatment, wastewater collection and treatment and storm water systems. Examples of the projects for which Jim was responsible include: a large Corps of Engineers water resources project in Puerto Rico; a USAID-funded wastewater collection and treatment project in Cairo, Egypt, serving about 5 million people; a World Bank-funded wastewater project in Izmir, Turkey, serving 2.5 million people which included equipment procurement and installation of a pumping station which used German electric motors, Japanese-built pumps and U.S. electrical switchgear (it worked); an internationally funded water resources project in Chile that would rival Bureau of Reclamation projects in California; and review of a wastewater and stormwater master plan for Dubai. Kirby retired after serving six years with the Kansas City Water Services Department as engineering division section manager for plant and process design. Jim is a diplomate in the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and is a member of several professional societies. He served as trustee and member of the Board of Directors of the Mid-Continent Library, as deputy commissioner with the Kansas City Election Board and a board member of Heartland Honor Flight. Kirby lives in Kansas City, Mo.