Keith King ’58

Keith King ’58, a civil engineering graduate, joined Volkert, Inc. as a project engineer in 1960 after being hired by chairman David G. Volkert. As an accomplished professional engineer licensed in eight states, King obtained national recognition for many of the projects he has engineered and managed, such as the Interstate 10 Twin Bridges over Mobile Bay, which was named one of the Ten Outstanding Engineering Achievements of 1978 by the National Society of Professional Engineers. Keith served as president of Volkert from 1983 until 2007 and CEO until his retirement in 2012 after 52 years of service. King worked hard to improve the areas of licensure, continuing professional development, ethical standards and professionalism through two terms as Chairman of the Alabama Licensure Board for the Business Council of Alabama; as President of the Alabama Society of Professional Engineers; as Vice President-Southeast for the National Society of Professional Engineers; and as a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and NSPE. King was named as a Distinguished Auburn Engineer by the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council in 1990 and was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 2002. King is a life member of the Auburn Alumni Association. He and his wife, Julia, live in Mobile.

In His Words

“Receiving this award is a great honor, I can’t say anything but good things about my experience at Auburn after all these years. Auburn is a great school with a great engineering college; that was really a major reason I went to Auburn, was to get engineering education, which has boded well for me because it prepared me to spend a lifetime with the company I retired from five years ago. We always speak to students on the campus and try to make everybody feel like they were home—that’s the way it’s always felt for me”