Wirfs saw in that an opportunity to meet a need in the area and bring in more clients simultaneously.Īs they focused their initial efforts on establishing themselves as an electrical engineering, instrumentation, and control systems firm, they also worked hard to launch a mechanical engineering side. The Portland area was already saturated with mechanical engineering firms and other engineering needs were given less attention. Because of this, he and the co-founder, Mark Wirfs, decided to focus the company on electrical engineering, instrumentation, and control systems. Finding clients so they could make enough to stay open was a concern for the first two years. One of the most challenging aspects of starting R&W, he said, was the finances. “The big changes in my life have occurred in cycles of eleven years,” he said. Reeder worked for Boeing for 11 years before he left and worked another 11 years as a mechanical engineer for a consulting engineering firm. When asked why he chose such a degree, Harry said, “Because I loved airplanes and wanted to work in the airplane industry.” And he did! Mr. He graduated from Oregon State University with a B.S. Reeder has been in the engineering and construction field for 64 years. With this post we’d like to honor one of them, Harry Reeder.

As we reflect on all we’ve accomplished, it’s clear that none of it would have been possible if not for our founders.

From reaching 100 projects with CIDA to celebrating our 41 st anniversary, 2019 has already been a fantastic year. R&W Engineering has seen some incredible milestones in the last couple of months.

Harry reeder