Culture and Staying Power

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Yerkes celebrates 150 years of Service

On June 6, 2024, a small gathering of some 60 or so former employees, associates, clients, a local Township leader, a State Senator, and family and friends, gathered at our West Chester, Pa office, celebrating the historic 150th Anniversary of providing surveying and engineering to the greater Philadelphia region. For more see below.

Mark Hackett Joins Firm

We are pleased to announce the addition of Mark Hackett, EIT to our firm. Mark, a Villanova graduate, brings (3) years of experience, most notably in the Municipal Services side of civil engineering, along with civil/site design.



for more on Mark click here

Yerkes Expands Technical Capabilities

Local firms join team, as Associates, improving response time in surveys and engineering projects. We are proud to announce the addition of the following outstanding Associate firms in; Mullin Engineering, LLC, McNeill Land Surveying, LLC, and Precision Geospatial Solutions, LLC.

Mullin Engineering, LLC is a full-service civil engineering and surveying firm located in West Chester, Pa. Principal John Mullin, PE leads his team in providing comprehensive services in surveying, engineering design, including storm water management, erosion control, site grading and construction stakeout. The firm has an exemplary proven track record providing site engineering for in-ground swimming pools and other projects for residential owners. John and Surveyor Sven Schrevelius, both previously worked for Yerkes Associates in year’s past. John’s son, Phillip Mullin rounds out the team providing field and office support. We are proud to have the Mullin Group back as Associates, as they offer extraordinary depth and expertise to our team. 

John Mullin, PE

Sven Schrevelius

Phillip Mullin

McNeill Land Surveying, LLC, a Gilbertsville, Pa based firm, has been providing high quality professional land surveying services throughout southeastern PA, including the City of Philadelphia since 2000.

The husband and wife team, of Peter and Gayle, have been providing the full spectrum of surveying services to a variety of clients, including private owners, major developers, realtors, architects, landscape architects, construction companies and homeowners alike.

Peter, a licensed professional land surveyor in the state of Pennsylvania, performs the actual surveys. Gayle, has a remarkable skill-set of talents in both management, setting up and preparing a survey project for the field, reviewing deeds, not to mention excellent skills when interacting with clients.

Their firm brings Yerkes an added capability of providing; ALTA / ACSM Land Title Surveys, As-Built, Boundary, Topographical, Site-layout, and Flood Elevation Surveys.

We are proud to have established an Associate Agreement with West Chester based Precision Geospatial Solutions, LLC, recently founded by

Josh D. Delaney (2023), his firm provides a unique offering of both field surveying, field testing, and civil/site design services.  This energetic and talented young professional can literally take a project from “soup to nuts”, with his energy, expertise and inventory of field equipment. An FAA licensed drone operator, Josh is also proficient in Robotic Total station & GPS/GNSS instruments, & 3D laser scanners, to collect survey data for boundary, as-built, topographical, and existing features surveys. He can easily generate 3D Models of existing features for clients.  On the design front, Josh provides site engineering design including storm water NPDES permit plans for private, industrial, and commercial properties. For a quick response, and meeting tight deadlines, Josh’s firm most definitely is added-value to our Yerkes team.

Leadership Corner, by Nick Cirilli, PE, PLS

Culture and Staying Power

We are all influenced by culture of one form or another. Whether it be ethnic, like the traditional 7-fish dinner each Christmas Eve, or workplace, such as the emphasis on safety, or lack thereof on the job. Repetitive behaviors by groups of people, over time, create cultures.

Cultures can be terrific, or they can be dangerous, and they can also slip over time. It all starts with our basic of human emotions – “a Feeling”, and then the behaviors associated with that feeling.

Repetitive feelings for or against "something" create an “Attitude” towards that "something". Repetitive attitudes, create a Value system. Over time, repetitive values, eventually create Traditions. When a value system, and their traditions are exercised on a repetitive basis, presto, a Cultural norm is established.

The Yerkes journey, originating in 1874, like any organization had its ups and downs throughout the decades. From what I’ve read about our company, and what past employees have told me; a quality that endured throughout was a core of incredible professionals who always valued each other, practiced quality, integrity, and meeting or exceeding client expectations. These values

became the culture of our first 150 years of staying power, and we pledge to continue that culture as we enter the next 150 !  

Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny. Henry Hancock