The EGCA Foundation | Engineering & General Contractors Association

Scholarship awards and Bruce Hazard tribute make an EGCA night to remember

By Tom Hogarty 

The culmination of a two-year effort on behalf of dozens of people and companies was memorialized in June at Red Mountain Machinery’s California headquarters in Escondido.

On that balmy evening, EGCA presented a two-fold event: a special tribute to the memory of Bruce Hazard, and the inaugural presentation of EGCA’s long-awaited scholarship awards.

“This is a night I have been looking forward to for a long time,” said EGCA president Jeff Anderson, of Vadnais Corporation, during his introduction of the evening’s host, Owen Cowing of Red Mountain Machinery.

President Anderson took care of some past business by presenting Owen with the EGCA 2003 Affiliate of the Year Award, as well as the evening’s sponsor award.

Cowing outlined the scholarship program’s history, which had its beginnings over the course of three days at an EGCA Strategic Planning Meeting in Palm Springs two years ago.

By the following year, a working committee was in place, goals and guidelines set.  Decisions came quickly: the first, to honor in each year’s program an individual whose career made significant and permanent contributions to the San Diego construction  industry. The second, to establish three scholarships, in the amounts of $10,000, $2,000, and $1,000.

Tribute to Bruce Hazard 

EGCA’s first honoree, Bruce Hazard, of Hazard Construction Company, was a unanimous choice, both of EGCA’s Selection Committee and the EGCA Board. 

Honoring Bruce’s memory was Hazard Construction’s Dave Randal, whose presentation was a fitting tribute to the memory of one who, as Randal said, “was a complex man with simple values. He was hard working, honest, friendly, inquisitive and imaginative. His word was his bond.

Randal continued, “He was a contractor in blood and spirit from the time he first worked for his dad (“Pappy” Hazard) in 1935 until he died in 2001."

The Founders’ Program 

Then it was time to honor the six companies who contributed $10,000 each to become the EGCA Scholarship Program’s Founding Sponsors. They are 4 Point Pipeline Construction Inc., Red Mountain Machinery, Clairemont Equipment, Hawthorne Machinery, D 3 Equipment, and Hazard Construction Co. 

The Scholars 4 Point Pipeline Construction’s Nick Napier presented the $2,000 scholarship award to Lauren Donaldson, who will begin her college career this month at USC, majoring in architecture, which, Nick pointed out, was his major when he was in college at San Luis Obispo. Lauren’s dad, Ralph, is with EGCA Member Vulcan Materials Next, it was Elan Schier’s turn to step forward to receive the $1,000 scholarship award. Elan is with EGCA member TC Construction Co. Inc. 

Hazard Construction Company’s Tom Shaddox added an additional memorable part to the program as he presented a $1,000 special award in EGCA’s Scholarship Program to Luis Perez, a Red Mountain Machinery employee. This year has been a banner year for Luis. In April, he became a US citizen, and in June, in EGCA’s first scholarship award program, Luis received recognition. 

“I don’t think there is anyone in this audience who would not like to have an employee with (Luis’s) attitude,” Shaddox said, after reading the scholarship application Luis had written. “In the process of this interview, Luis stated that he ‘just wanted to be a success.’ And I responded, ‘you already are; you just don’t know it yet.’ 

” Accompanied by his wife, Sandra, and his daughter, Nielly, Luis came forward to accept the award. 

Leslie D. Sjobom EGCA’s first $10,000 scholarship award winner is Leslie D. Sjobom, the daughter of Mark and Sheryl Sjobom, of Traffic Control Service and Allied Trench Shoring Service. Before presenting her with the historic award, Tom Shaddox confided to the EGCA membership that “I found that being involved in the scholarship selection process has been one of the most gratifying experiences I have ever been through in my life. I feel good about what we did, I feel good about the scholarship program, and I am more than happy to give my time to what I consider to be a most worthy endeavor."

Tom mentioned that the competition, especially between the top two candidates, was extremely close. "It has been a long time since I was in school. The A’s came hard for me," Tom said. "This young lady went through four years of high school with an unweighted 4.0, which means that she never got a B. It was straight A’s the whole four years of high school—quite an achievement."

Although Sjobom has been accepted at Purdue, Iowa State, and UCSD, she has chosen to attend UCSD. Shaddox pointed out that, in addition to her academic excellence, Sjobom compiled an enviable extra curricular record of high school sports and community involvement.

Bringing the history making program to a close, Nick Napier announced that his company, 4 Point Pipeline, has donated a plaque that will be on permanent display at the EGCA office. It will note the names of Leslie Sjobom and Bruce Hazard, the $10,000 scholarship recipient and the 2004 Scholarship Program Honoree, respectively.

Each successive year, the plaque will note the $10,000 scholarship winner, honoree’s names, and brief data. This year, the scholarship side of the plaque will read (with graduation year to be included later):

Leslie D. Sjobom
University of California, San Diego
Declared Major:
Mechanical Engineering

The honoree side will read:
Bruce Hazard
2004 Honoree
R.E. Hazard Contracting Company
1934-2001