Academy of Distinguished Alumni
J.W. (Jack) Bonniville,
B.S.1958

Jack Bonniville graduated high school in 1953 and signed up to become a telephone lineman. A friend asked him to tag along while he enrolled at the Norfolk Division of V.P.I. (now Old Dominion University). Jack did so. The college official asked him why he didn’t sign up also. So he did, thus ending his career as a lineman before it began.



The self-proclaimed “engineer by accident” is a Norfolk native who graduated from Virginia Tech in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. Soon after signing up to join the (then) Bureau of Public Roads upon graduating, Dr. James Schaub, one of Mr. Bonneville’s professors, talked him into applying for a fellowship to Yale University. Being a married student with a pile of unpaid bills, an infant son and another on the way, his main concern was joining the ranks of the employed. But, to everyone’s surprise, he was awarded the fellowship. Then, upon learning that the Virginia Department of Highways (VDH) would pay half salary while he was in graduate school, he once again resigned from a job before it began and signed on with VDH.



Mr. Bonniville completed his graduate studies at Yale University’s Bureau of Highway Traffic, earning a master’s equivalent in June 1959. He spent the next five years as the district traffic engineer in the Highway Department’s 12-county Suffolk District in the tidewater area. When Norfolk County incorporated as the City of Chesapeake, he accepted the position as the city’s first traffic engineer.



A few years later, his Yale connections resurfaced. One of its visiting lecturers had been Wilbur S. Smith, a pioneer in the transportation engineering field and head of his own consulting firm, Wilbur Smith and Associates (WSA) headquartered in Columbia, S.C. Smith so impressed Mr. Bonnivile that it became his goal to one day work for him. And he did, joining WSA in 1967, nine years after leaving Blacksburg. WSA is an international consulting engineering firm specializing in the planning, design, operations and construction engineering of multi-modal transportation facilities and systems. The firm now has annual billings exceeding $160 million and a staff of about 1,250.



During his early years with the firm, Mr. Bonniville served as a project manager and, subsequently, as manager of the firm’s southern region and was responsible for its practice in 12 Southern and Mid-Atlantic states. In 1972, he was chosen to be managing director of WSA’s operations in Australia, with its headquarters in Melbourne and branch offices in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra.



Upon returning to Columbia in 1975, Mr. Bonniville assumed responsibility for the firm’s overall international operations, which encompassed about one-third of the company’s annual billings. He was promoted to senior vice president and elected to the firm’s Board of Directors. In 1989, under the ESOP program, the employees purchased WSA. Mr. Bonniville became an equity stockholder.



Under his direction, which encompassed overall market development, contracting and project management responsibilities, the firm’s international operations grew significantly with the group undertaking and completing major engineering projects in more than 60 countries. During his career, Mr. Bonniville was also active in numerous professional organizations. He served as president of both the South Carolina Society of Professional Engineers and the Consulting Engineers of South Carolina. He is a past president of the South Carolina Council of Engineering Societies. He was president of the Virginia Association of Traffic Engineers. For five years, he represented South Carolina as its National Director to the American Consulting Engineer’s Council. He also served as an alternate member of the Board of Directors of the International Road Federation.



In 1989, he was honored by being selected as South Carolina’s “Engineer of the Year” by the state’s Society of Professional Engineers. In 2006, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, inducted Mr. Bonniville into the “Order of the Palmetto,” the state’s highest civilian honor.



Mr. Bonniville is married to the former Sarah Gray Wallace, also of Norfolk. They have three children – Bill and his wife, Diane; Jim and his wife, Jan; and, Marian and her husband, John; all of whom reside in Columbia. Jack and Sarah have been blessed with four grandchildren. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Aug. 4, 2006.