The record Speaks: Alumni-founded engineering firm marks 50 years of service

Larry Speaks had a great idea at a terrible time.

The 1962 civil engineering alumnus was ready to open his engineering firm, Larry Speaks & Associates, after more than a dozen years with the Alabama Department of Transportation starting in his hometown of Alexander City.

He found a space on South Hull Street in Montgomery and set his sights on pre‑construction work across central Alabama, including the Lake Martin area.

But that was years away. Speaks set up shop in 1976, in the middle of a decade marked by high inflation, high interest rates and recession.

Mortgage rates were hovering around 9% and would climb to almost 13% before the end of the ’70s, coming in right behind the 13.3% inflation rate. Economic activity had slowed to a trickle.

“It was literally survival mode,” said Steven Speaks, Larry’s son and a 1996 civil engineering graduate who runs the company today with fellow engineer and company vice president Greg Gillian. “It was just Larry, my mother was the office manager and bookkeeper, and a couple other surveyors and operators.

“They limped along for a couple years, just getting enough work to keep the doors open when they got started. But when things settled down and the country started coming back from that recession, they took off little by little.”

By the 1990s, when central Alabama had settled into its recovery from the previous two decades, Larry Speaks & Associates had developed a reputation for high-quality, deliberate engineering work.

The company has played a major role in the revitalization of the Mill at Prattville. Speaks & Associates has been a go-to contractor for land development around Lake Martin. It has projects throughout Alabama in public and private sectors.

Today, the company has almost 30 employees and is celebrating 50 years in business. Larry handed the reins over to Steven and Gillian in 2006, and the founder passed away three years later. Steven started working for the company when he was 16.

More than any particular project, Steven Speaks said what makes him the proudest of his company is how many of its clients keep coming back, year after year.

“Some of them are from my father’s generation. I had one in my office yesterday. He’s my father’s age, if he was still alive,” Speaks said. “He’s in his 80s and he still comes to us for surveys and is giving us his business because we’re consistent. We take care of our clients and do what we say we’re going to do. We solve problems for folks.”

Laying the groundwork

It wasn’t long after Speaks took over as president of his father’s company that he would face some familiar trials.

He had been at the helm fewer than two years before the economy crashed again — concentrated in the residential and commercial construction sectors that are a major source of business for the firm.

“Everything just stopped,” Speaks said. “Everything just froze.”

Residential was a major source of business for the company, but not the only source. Speaks’ company has not just survived, but thrived, because it cultivated a wide base of clients and skillsets.

“In terms of how to navigate — and this is big picture, company-wide — you want to be as diversified as you can as an engineering company,” Speaks said. “There was a company here in Montgomery that pretty much all they did was residential subdivisions. That was their niche. And when that recession hit, every one of those subdivisions stopped. They went under — they went out of business because they had nothing else to do.”

It’s a lesson he reinforces to his sons today: Expand your expertise and grow your client base so that you can weather the storm.

One area of civil engineering that the company has developed as a specialty is on-site wastewater treatment. About a third of Alabama residents use some kind of on-site wastewater system, especially around the Lake Martin area where Speaks & Associates have a heavy presence.

It’s a field that Speaks himself has become an expert in. A member of the Alabama Onsite Wastewater Association (AOWA), he’s a project lead on the Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program, a joint project with the state helping to provide wastewater systems to almost 200 homes in rural Alabama that lack sufficient treatment systems.

He’s also used his expertise to grow the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Auburn Engineering.

The linchpin

Speaks was the link between the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and AOWA. The association was in search of a new training facility just as the department was looking to expand training opportunities for professionals, faculty and students at the Stormwater Research Facility.

His connection to both groups led to the creation of the Onsite Wastewater Training Center being constructed at the stormwater facility.

“We are extremely grateful to Steven for serving as the catalyst in connecting us with the Alabama Onsite Wastewater Association at a pivotal moment as they sought a new training facility,” said David Timm, department chair of civil and environmental engineering. “This facility will have a lasting positive impact on improving wastewater practices across Alabama and the broader region, exemplifying our core missions of research and outreach.”

The connection coincided with the arrival of Jillian Maxcy-Brown, now an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering whose research focuses on onsite wastewater systems and issues.

Timm said the “timing could not have been better,” and Speaks was at the center of what will become a pivotal facility in Alabama.

“It will be the only one of its kind in the U.S. and has great potential for serving the 35% of Alabamians and 25% of Americans who are using septic systems,” said Maxcy-Brown.

She added that Speaks was “monumental” in the process and “personifies an engaged alumni who is truly invested in expanding the impact of our department.”

Speaks has been an engaged alumni for years, serving on both civil engineering’s alumni advisory council and the Auburn Engineering Alumni Council. He and his wife, Julie, created the Steven and Julie Speaks Ever Auburn Endowed Scholarship in 2021. The company also maintains the Larry E. Speaks & Associates Endowed Scholarship in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Growing from Auburn roots

Speaks’ connection to Auburn gets stronger all the time. Not only has he been a critical member of alumni councils, but his sons are also graduates of civil engineering.

William Speaks, ’20, and Thomas Speaks, ’24, worked in corporate engineering after graduation before they felt the pull to get back home.

Now, three generations of Auburn Engineering graduates have worked for the company, with Larry and Steven’s legacy continuing with William and Thomas.

“It is an honor and a privilege to work alongside my father and brother as we continue the legacy that Granddad built,” William said. “His legacy still resonates throughout every aspect of the company today. From the employees going on 20, 30, even 40 years with the business, to the many clients that continue to call because of a relationship that began with Granddad.”

Steven’s oldest and youngest sons worked for the company during the summers, getting experience with survey crews and discovering they enjoyed the work.

“They’re really enjoying it,” Speaks said. “They’ve come back to work at their grandfather’s company. I didn’t push them into any of that, it’s just how it happened.”

And he’s teaching them the same lessons his father left him.

“You treat folks like you want to be treated. Take care of folks like you want to be taken care of,” he said. “Hopefully that makes an impression on folks and they continue to come back over the long haul.”

William Speaks said those values guide the company today.

“It’s inspiring to see, and a testament to how we continue to operate under the same principles 50 years later. My father is a big part of that, and it is just as inspiring to watch him lead the company the way he does. My brother and I are blessed to have the opportunity that lies ahead of us and are excited to see what the future holds for this company.”