Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE -Owen Ayres has had a few unexpected mishaps on the road to his success. An alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Ayres founded Ayres Associates, an architectural engineering firm that originated in Eau Claire with five employees that now employs more than 400 people nationwide, including 42 UWP graduates.

Ayres's first mishap occurred when he was still in high school. He and some of his friends decided to take the Air Force examinations (both mental and physical), which were given at the nearest Air Force base. If they passed, they would be sworn into the Air Force and return to high school. When they turned 18 and graduated from high school, they would be sent to college for two years and then onto nine months of flight training. Ayres passed the examination and just before graduation from high school was called into service but mistakenly sent to flight school instead of college. Nine months later, the very day he was supposed to get his wings, he was told that he might not be able to receive his wings because they had never awarded them at such a young age.

Ayres found out later that day that he would in fact receive his wings. Afterward he went on to become a B24 bomber pilot and flew on 25 missions over Europe. He was discharged in 1945 after two years of service.

After his time in the service, Ayres began attending UW-Madison. It was there that Ayres met his future wife. After his second year, he transferred to UWP (or the Mining School, as it was called then).

Ayres spent three years in the mining engineering school and then faced another mishap. At the time Ayres attended, students were not able to complete this degree at the Mining School, so Ayres was forced to complete his degree at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

After graduating from college, Ayres went to work in Milwaukee. During a visit back to his hometown of Eau Claire, he ran into his father's friend, who offered Ayres a position at his consulting engineering company in Eau Claire. After two years at the firm, his father's friend offered to sell Ayres the company for $300 a month over the next three years.

There was another mishap, unfortunately. The firm was a civil engineering firm, and Ayres's degree was in mining engineering. In order to successfully take over the business, Ayres needed to be registered as a civil engineer, which meant he needed to take the Professional Engineer exam. As Ayres recalled, it took a lot of work to prepare for the test because he opted for a structural engineering license.

"It was a pretty difficult exam to study for without any professors to help," Ayres commented on the experience.

After two years of studying, Ayres passed the PE exam on his second try. Ayres bought the company in 1959.

Ayres attributes his accomplishments to the quality education he received at UWP. "The education I received at UWP prepared me for all the success I've had. If you want to be an engineer, UWP is the way to go. One thing I enjoyed in particular was how all the classes were taught by professors and not by grad students," said Ayres.

In particular, Ayres enjoyed taking classes with Larry Ottensman, who Ayres claims was the best professor he ever had. According to Ayres, Ottensman was particularly helpful because he would have open office hours following his lectures in which he would help guide students through the material he had just lectured on. Ottensman offered two pieces of advice that Ayres remembers to this day: to not be afraid to take a risk, and to get involved in his community.

This last piece of advice has become a part of the philosophy of Ayres Associates, as many employees across the nation often make an effort to support office-wide civic and charitable functions.

Ayres Associates is now an architectural engineering firm with 17 offices in eight states across the country. They provide services in transportation, civil, structural, wastewater, water resources, and river engineering; planning; architecture; environmental science; real estate; surveying; photogrammetry; and geographic information systems.

According to their website, Ayres Associates is a company that is dedicated to employee ownership, a structure that began with its founder and continues today. This structure enables all employees to benefit directly from company performance. They practice open book, open door, and open communications policies with their employees.

Ayres became secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation in 1981 at the request of Lee Dreyfus, the governor at the time. He also served as chairman of the registration board for three years.

Ayres was one of three leading donors of the Wisconsin DOT Sponsors Scholarship fund established at UWP last year. His involvement in the DOT led him to the decision to help sponsor this cause.

Contact: Angie Gasior, director of development and major gifts, (608) 342-1231, gasiora@uwplatt.edu Written by: Megan Mowry, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, mowryme@uwplatt.edu