A second generation surveyor, Dr. Elgin was raised in St. James, Missouri and in his late parents' surveying business located in nearby Rolla. After high school Dick joined the Army, went through helicopter flight school, was made a Warrant Officer, and spent 1969 in Vietnam flying the Hughes OH6A “LOH” and the ubiquitous UH-1 "Huey" with the Americal Division. 

Following the Army he received the BSCE and MSCE degrees from the Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T, Rolla, MO) and his PhD from the University of Arkansas.  Leaving Arkansas he joined the faculty of the Department of Civil Engineering at S&T as an Assistant Professor (1980-1984) and is now Adjunct Professor Emeritus. 

From 1984 until 2008 Dick was the owner and President of Elgin Surveying & Engineering, Inc.  Semi-retired, Dick currently works for Archer-Elgin Engineering, Surveying and Architecture.  He is a former member of the Missouri Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Professional Land Surveyors and Professional Landscape Architects; a Past-President of the Missouri Society of Professional Surveyors; a member of both S&T's and the University of Arkansas' Academy of Civil Engineers; a member of S&T's Order of the Golden Shillelagh; and on the Board of Directors of S&T’s Alumni Association. 

With the late Drs. David Knowles and the late Joe Senne, Dick coauthored the Celestial Observation Handbook and Ephemeris and codeveloped the "ASTRO" celestial observation software products.  With David Knowles, he coauthored Legal Principles of Boundary Location for Arkansas and The U.S. Public Land Survey System for Arkansas. 

Dick is the author of The U.S. Public Land Survey System for Missouri, Riparian Boundaries for Arkansas and Riparian Boundaries for Missouri.  He also wrote Shoulda Played the Flute, a memoir of his year flying helicopters in Vietnam.  Dick was Arkansas’ surveying and mapping expert in a state riparian boundary dispute with Mississippi, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.  See Arkansas v. Mississippi, 471 U.S. 377 (1985). 

​He is an avid collector and researcher of early American surveying equipment, and owns one of the largest private collections of such equipment in the United States.  Semi-retired, he and his wife enjoy touring by bicycle, RV or in their perfectly restored 1976 Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior or 1967 Austin Cooper 1275 S.

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Writing Boundary Descriptions...A Primer, Some Suggestions and Examples
Thursday, January 9, 2024, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

Many title and boundary issues can be laid at the feet of the poorly prepared boundary description crafted by the poorly prepared individual who wrote the description, those poorly prepared individuals being lawyers, realtors, engineers, those in the title industry and.....Professional Surveyors. The boundary description must succinctly, clearly, with specificity and certainty describe only one possible tract of land that neither causes nor creates gores or overlaps with its adjoiners. This high standard requires one trained in the art of crafting the boundary description...whether by metes and bounds, a "strip" description, by reference, or by some proportional part. This presentation offers rules of construction and suggestions and examples for preparing a boundary description.

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50 Ways to Make Your Surveys Better and Life Easier
Thursday, January 9, 2025 1:30-5:30 p.m.
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A presentation for principals, managers and employees of surveying/engineering firms, it offers effective, tested, practical, useful ideas for operating such a business. Taught by the former owner of a successful surveying and mapping firm, Dick draws on and gives the attendee the benefit of his 24 years of frustration in acquiring the project, then getting it out the door as promised, billed and paid, while at the same time making a profit and providing the Quality Assurance/Quality Control and risk management checks the project deserves. The presentation is supplemented with handouts, example forms and letters

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Professionals Panel and Moderated Q&A
​ (Norm Bowers; Steve Brosemer & Dick Elgin)
​Friday, January 10, 2025, 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Learn about a variety of topics from seasoned professionals, and have an opportunity to ask questions and get three perspectives on the topic or issue. 

Focus Topics: 

• Resolving Pincushions - Norm Bowers - 8:00 a.m. - 8:50 a.m.
• Land Survey Reference Reports - Steve Brosemer - 9:00 a.m. - 9:50 a.m.
• Riparian Boundaries - Dick Elgin - 10:10 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. 

Moderated Q&A ("Ask the Experts...") - Bowers, Brosemer, Elgin - 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.


Riparian boundaries are different from their upland brethren...they move! And, the extent of the uplands' title depends on whether the stream they adjoin is navigable or nonnavigable...something the Kansas PLS has no duty or authority to decide. How do we survey and then prepare a boundary description for such a tract? How do we report the acreage? Can a stream be nonnavigable but subject to some state or federal regulations? How is the thread of the stream defined and surveyed? Answers to the questions provided.