Ruth & Going, Charles W. Davidson Co. employees join HMH
Silicon Valley engineering firms’ merger brings together decades of history
By SAL PIZARRO | spizarro@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: February 17, 2021 at 2:23 p.m. | UPDATED: February 17, 2021 at 2:26 p.m.
San Jose’s HMH Engineers was founded in 1976, but now the firm is going to be the steward of legacies that stretch back decades further.
Gerry de Young and Michael Sheehy, the principals at Ruth & Going, had been in discussions for the past year with HMH about its employees and clients coming over to them. The Santa Clara engineering company opened in 1949 and in recent decades worked on numerous residential subdivisions and retail centers including Almaden Ranch and Coleman Landings, as well as being the civil engineering firm responsible for transforming the former IBM location on Cottle Road from a 1950s campus to Western Digital’s world headquarters today.
And just as an agreement was being hammered out, Charles W. Davidson Co. Vice President Peter Smith told the HMH crew — led by David Wilson and six partners — that his company’s legendary founder had decided to close the doors of the firm, which was founded in 1960 and had recently provided work for some of the high-rises sprouting in San Jose including One South Market.
Smith, who has more than 30 years of experience in the business, joined HMH as a land development manager. De Young and Sheehy, who started at Ruth & Going in 1973 and 1979, respectively, also will be land development managers at HMH, where their former Ruth & Going employees also started this week.
While it’s unfortunate to lose two key companies very entwined in the growth of San Jose and Silicon Valley, their names will be around as long as their buildings stand. And it sounds like HMH — which has worked on Westfield Valley Fair’s expansion and Google’s Downtown West project in San Jose — will keep their legacies alive as it adds to its own.