Why I Give…
Civil engineering graduate Jonathan Gammon tells us why he’s proud to support the University of Surrey...
Jonathan and Jenny may be cold in the picture, but they've always had warm feelings for Surrey
After graduating, I remained in contact with the University, especially with Noel Simons and Bruce Menzies, our Soil Mechanics Lecturers. They’d encouraged me to take up a career in what we now call Ground Engineering and they’d been instrumental in me securing my place on the Soil Mechanics MSc Degree Course at Imperial College after I left Surrey in 1974.
An international career
When working in Hong Kong from 1980-1984, I enabled students to come and work at my company, Fugro (Hong Kong), for their year in industry. When I returned to the UK from New Zealand in 1988, I refreshed my contacts at Surrey and I continued to help with industrial year placements and gave lectures.
I spent a further six years working in Hong Kong from 1996-2002. It must have been shorty after my return to the UK, now more than 20 years ago, that I had that magical call from a Surrey student to find out if I’d be willing to make a regular financial contribution to the well-being of the University and students.
Student days
The civil engineering course at Surrey was excellent and the lecturers were brilliant. They gave me a fantastic start to my international career. Before retirement from full-time work in 2017, this spanned more than 40 years.
My industrial placement year in Switzerland working for a major contractor on a wonderful project provided me with exceptional practical experience and the ability to speak German. To this day, I maintain the project I worked on in Switzerland during my time at Surrey remains one of my favourite ventures.
Thank you
I was very happy, therefore, to make a tangible contribution to Surrey, by way of a “thank you”, when asked to do so. As a result, my wife, Jenny, and I have greatly enjoyed attendance and active participation with alumni events.
In October 2018, I was invited to give Surrey’s Civil Engineering Lecture and to talk about my career in civil and ground engineering. I took that opportunity to underline the importance of my time at Surrey to my subsequent career.
Jonathan's lecture was recorded and can be found here.