16 May Tom Schaeffer Retiring
Tom Schaeffer, one of SDG’s original founding partners, most recently serving as SDG’s President, is retiring after 45 years in the engineering industry. Tom will continue to be involved part time at SDG as he transitions to a Principal Emeritus role with the firm.
Tom was born and grew up in Nashville. He received his BE in Civil Engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1979, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and received the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship. In 1981, he received his MSE from the University of Texas at Austin. He went to work for Stanley D. Lindsey and Associates in Nashville in 1981 where he spent 18 years as a structural engineer and Principal, leaving in 1999 with 5 other engineers to form Structural Design Group.
Tom has been key in growing SDG to one of the largest structural engineering firms in Tennessee with close to 50 employees today.
He has been very active in professional organizations being honored with a Fellowship in the American Concrete Institute (ACI). He served on ACI’s Main Building Code Committee 318, Structural Concrete Building Code; as Chairman of ACI Subcommittee 318-F, Foundations and Chairman of ACI Subcommittee 318-S, Spanish Translation; member of Joint ACI- ASCE Committee 423, Prestressed Concrete; associate member and past Chairman of Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 421, Design of Reinforced Concrete Slabs; and associate member of Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 445, Shear and Torsion. Additionally, he was a member of the ACI Publications Board and the ACI Marketing Committee, and the review panel for ATC 115 on high strength reinforcement.
Tom was also active in the Post-Tensioning Institute, the American Society of Civil Engineers, Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute, American Institute of Steel Construction, Colegio De Ingenieros Y Agrimensores De Puerto Rico, National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, National Society of Professional Engineers, Florida Engineering Society, and Society of American Military Engineers.
Tom was a registered Professional Engineer in 25 states. He has completed projects all across the United States. Some of Tom’s most notable designs include Opryland Hotel’s Delta, Cascades and Conservatory additions – at the time the largest construction projects in Nashville history. In his time at SDG, he’s been involved in over 3,000 projects, over 2,000 of them in Mississippi. Other significant projects include Jackson Convention Center, Gertrude C. Ford Center for Performing Arts at Ole Miss, Mississippi State Engineering Building and Azalea Hall, and Mississippi Braves Trustmark Park.
Tom says he will most miss all of the people he’s worked with but he is looking forward to having more time with his wife Andrea and his family at his Leipers Fork home and with his hobbies including beekeeping, farming, fishing, woodworking, and working on old cars. We had the honor recently to celebrate Tom’s retirement with his friends and family. He is a legend at SDG and will be greatly missed.
SDG will continue to be led by our group of six Principals and five Associate Principals who share in the day-to-day operation of the firm, with Jim Parker stepping into the role of President. The partners remain committed to providing principal-level client contact and involvement in all projects.
