Employee Spotlight: Paul Howard

Employee Spotlight #6: We are excited to shine this week’s employee spotlight on Senior Vice President, Paul Howard. Paul co-founded Tata & Howard nearly 30 years ago with the late Donald J. Tata, and has been dedicated to the company since day one, October 19, 1992.

Coming from a long line of engineers, Paul’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather owned Whitman & Howard, Inc., a prominent New England civil engineering firm founded in 1867. Growing up around engineers provided Paul the opportunity to be exposed to the field at a young age, and as early as 5-years-old, he could be found on construction sites with his father. By 14 he was working on a survey crew gaining even more experience before entering Worcester Polytechnic Institute to obtain a degree in civil engineering.

Paul’s favorite types of projects involve water treatment plants and water supply development. The most memorable project worked on, and the second official T&H project, was the Elm Bank Pump Station job, no. 1002. The Elm Bank Pump Station was the culmination of approximately 10 years of work to develop the water supply for the Towns of Natick, Wellesley, Needham, and Dover. Natick was the only Town to move forward with developing the source. At the time, the pump test for the supply was the largest pump test ever conducted in the state of Massachusetts. Four wells were pumped at 4 million gallons per day.  Seven thousand feet of discharge piping was used. The permitting for the project was extensive and in the end limited the Town to 2.2 mgd out of an approval yield of 7.0 mgd.

When he’s not at one of the T&H offices, Paul enjoys golfing and snowboarding, traveling, and spending time with family. A fond travel memory dates back to childhood when he went fishing at the Arctic Circle and the Northwest Territory of Canada. On this special trip he caught a 31.5 pound lake trout, an 11 pound arctic char, saw an albino wolverine, and piloted a six passenger airplane.