John grew up on a southwest Iowa farm, attended Iowa State University, and obtained a BS in civil engineering (‘71), and a MS in geotechnical engineering (‘74) degrees. He earned a Ph.D. in civil/geotechnical engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 2015. John served as a US Army Engineer officer beginning in 1973. Active-duty assignments included USAEUR in West Germany, 130th Engineer Brigade and US CENTOM in the Middle East. He joined the US Army Reserve and served with the 416th ENCOM and JTF-6 in El Paso, TX before his mandatory retirement as a LTC in August 2001.
John was a senior project engineer for Exxon in Houston (1977-1980) before returning to the Midwest and commencing a consulting engineering career. He started Terracon Environmental, and the firm grew to a staff of 400 professionals before his retirement in 1999. After several years of private consulting, John joined Aquaterra Environmental Solutions in 2003 as chief engineer and BOD member. AES merged with SCS Engineers in 2012, and he served as a senior consultant with SCS Engineers from 2012 to 2020.
Dr. Hartwell is currently retired but continues to provide specialized engineering consulting services. He is a registered professional engineer in Iowa and Nebraska and holds emeritus status in 11 other states. He enjoys hiking, distance running, model building and reading.
John’s family includes 3 children and 9 grandchildren.
