James W. Fletcher (Jim) was responsible for the technical direction of the Construction Materials and Geotechnical Laboratories at Bowser-Morner, Inc. He retired in late 2022. Jim worked with the Laboratory Managers in each of the laboratory locations: Dayton & Toledo, OH and Springfield, IL. to maintain the high quality standards that Bowser-Morner is well known for. He has a BS degree in Arts & Sciences, with an emphasis on chemistry and limnology, from The Ohio State University along with post graduate classes and geotechnical laboratory workshops presented at The University of Texas-Austin and University of Missouri-Rolla.
Jim started working in Bowser-Morner’s Geotechnical Laboratory in 1973 as a high school intern. From 1976 to 1981 Jim performed research through the Research Foundation at The Ohio State University while pursuing his college degree. After graduating from OSU in 1981 he returned to Bowser-Morner’s Dayton Engineering Department and worked in a variety of positions and over the past 43 years was promoted from lab technician to staff limnologist to Laboratory Manager of the Dayton Construction Materials & Geotechnical Laboratories to Vice President, Director of Laboratory Services.
Jim is an active participant on several ASTM standards committees, having served as chairman and vice chairman of several subcommittees in D18 on Soil & Rock, and as a member of C9 on Concrete & Concrete Aggregates and D4 on Road & Paving Materials. He is also a member of eight state aggregate associations and two state ready mixed concrete association Technical Committees. His active participation brings technical insight to those committees and provides him with current and future developments in the field of construction materials testing.
In 2011 Jim was named the honored recipient of ASTM International’s “Richard S. Ladd D18 Standards Development Award.” The award granted by ASTM’s Committee on Soil and Rock, is in recognition of his time and extensive effort spent in preparing ASTM Designation D7263, “Standard Test Methods for Laboratory Determination of Density (Unit Weight) of Soil Specimens.”
When Jim’s not working you can probably find him out on Lake Erie chasing walleyes or on Lake Michigan downrigging for salmon.