Robert C. Grubic, the recently retired CEO of Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, is ENR MidAtlantic’s 2023 Legacy Award winner.

Selected by ENR’s editors, the annual Legacy Award cites an individual in the region who has established a solid “legacy” of lifetime service to the design and construction industry, their colleagues and to their community. ENR MidAtlantic includes Washington D.C., Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

After joining the firm in 1973, Grubic became a partner five years later. He retired as CEO of the Harrisburg, Pa.-based firm on Dec. 31, 2022, but will still chair the firm's board.

Grubic has been instrumental to the company’s significant growth from a small, local firm into a full-service civil engineering and related services firm with 290 employees and multiple locations across Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

The firm attributes its expansion into transportation, financial services, technology services, surveying and renewable energy, as well as its geographic expansion, to Grubic’s "vision and leadership." The firm says, "Grubic is known as a leader and advisor, providing guidance, supporting business development initiatives, and engaging in client and community relations."

HRG, which won ENR MidAtlantic’s design firm of the year in 2021, is known for its work on roads and bridges and water and wastewater infrastructure, as well as work with municipalities, counties and local authorities. The firm, which just celebrated its 60th anniversary, has worked continuously with some of its current clients for more than four decades.The firm has also seen recent growth within the private sector in distribution center work. 

Grubic helped establish an employee stock ownership plan at the firm in 2008. The firm attributes the ESOP as being instrumental to HRG’s success, "especially to its ability to attract and retain talent."

Grubic also gives back to the community and the industry. He has held leadership positions in several professional and community organizations including the Pennsylvania State Registration Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists, the Harrisburg Chapter of the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers, the Harrisburg Regional Chamber of Commerce, Harrisburg Builders Exchange, Central Penn College, Mid Penn Bank, The Foundation for Enhancing Communities (TFEC) and Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts.

Working with young engineers at his alma mater, Villanova University, has also been one of Grubic's passions. Last year Grubic was recognized by Villanova’s Dean of the College of Engineering with a Professional Achievement Award.

To learn more about Grubic check out the February issue of ENR MidAtlantic.