Melvin Kejr, Geoprobe® Systems President, was chosen as an honored Alum from his Alma Mater, Kansas State Univerity. Mel was also featured on the front page of K-State Salina's K-Techer newsletter after receiving this award from the University. The story is reproduced in the words that follow...

Opportunities. They are all around us. Considered to be risks, some become too fearful to take a chance to upset the normalcy or routine of everyday. Opportunities bring change and with change a chance to become successful.
One person who has been able to not only create opportunities for himself and others but also has found true success is the 2002 College of Technology and Aviation Alumni Fellow, Melvin Kejr.

Kejr, a 1979 graduate in mechanical engineering technology, started with a simple goal to build a successful manufacturing company that would be known for its innovation and usefulness. He along with partner, Tom Christy, founded Kejr, Inc. and sells products around the world under the brand names of Geoprobe® Systems and Veris Technologies.

He calls himself an opportunist. A term he doesn't apologize for but feels is often misunderstood. He also believes people - including himself - do not see all the opportunities that present themselves.

"If an opportunity had a sign on it that said 'opportunity,' everybody would see it," he said. "Instead, we see problems and obstacles. We get lost in our own paradigm. The trick is to see the 'problem' you encounter as your next opportunity.

"To be an opportunist you need to be willing to think different than other people - to be okay with people thinking you're a little bit weird," he said. "Because virtually in all cases, it means doing something different from the way it used to be. Revel in the fact that it is not the norm."

Kejr came by many of his skills naturally. It was normal for his father to modify or build farm machinery to suit his own needs. He remembers the difficulty this sometimes created when being sent to town to pick up parts for a particular machine because make, model and serial numbers sometimes had little significance.

Besides the influence of his father, Kejr admired R.G. LeTourneau. LeTourneau was known for his innovation. Many of his inventions can be seen used every day. From the dirt scraper to the adjustable-dozer blade mounted in front of a crawler tractor (Cat), LeTourneau once said there are no problems too big that bigger equipment can't solve, Kejr said.

As important as his innovative spirit, Kejr has been inspired by LeTourneau's commitment and sacrifice to make Christ known, loved and served in the United States and around the world.

Kejr, the fifth of six kids, graduated from Ell-Saline High School, in Brookville, Kan., in 1973 and then attended a one-year bible school in Texas. He said he enrolled at LeTourneau College the following year, but didn't attend because his custom harvesting business overlapped with the fall and spring school schedule.

It wasn't until a mission trip to Africa one winter that he determined it was important to go back to school. A missionary that he had become acquainted with over the years and had admired was killed in a motorcycle accident while he was in Africa. As he reviewed the impact and passion of this missionary, it became clear it was important to get on with his life goals and dreams. Education was an important cog to that end, he said.

Upon his return, he was admitted to Kansas State University -Manhattan, but at the last moment switched to Kansas Technical Institute in Salina. This arrangement allowed him to continue much of his harvesting business while still attending school. At the time, it seemed like a bonus to get his schooling done in two years rather than four years, he said.

He found it easy to get back into his studies after being away from school for years.

"It may be because I didn't really give a rip about what kind of grade I got in class," Kejr said. "I was there to learn - learn things I could apply in my world.

"Some of the classes were just down right fun. They had such close application to things I was already doing that I found myself saying, 'hey, shoot. Now I can calculate that.' 'I understand why it did that,' or 'I can predict what it's going to do,'" Kejr said. "So I'd go home and work problems off the top of my head on something I had already built."

Although he believes he learned more at home on the farm than in school, he really thinks he should have committed to completing his engineering studies in Manhattan because there is no substitute for a solid base in theory, he said.

On the farm, he learned a lot from his father because he performed modifications to much of the equipment they used. His dad also taught him to recognize weak or poor designs and instilled in him an appreciation for what looked good.

The college classroom gave him science and physics to build off what was learned on the farm. It provided the theory, math and science that allowed for development of more complex projects.

He said that after graduating he did little projects that were small steps in the direction of his goal.

In 1984, he received his first patent for the development of a unique combine platform that could hinge-flex to follow the contour of a field.

"Design-wise, it is the most complicated thing I had ever been involved with and pushed the envelope further than I had ever gone," Kejr said.

It was his coming out party and proved his worth. At the time, it was a one-man show. The design, fabrication, the motivation to get it done, the purchasing and the funding all came from Kejr. After a few years of product refinement gleaned from use, he met with John Deere and Case about licensing and manufacture.

In 1985, he incorporated, namely to protect himself, but it also provided the company framework for his long-term goal.

He and his partner, Christy, created Geoprobe® Systems in 1987 and then introduced in 1988 the first small, efficient and compact soil-probing machine to the environmental subsurface investigation industry, known as the Direct Push market.

Kejr said the thing that satisfies him the most is the team of people he and Christy have assembled.

"Our company goals are simple yet bold," he said. "Build a strong team of bright and creative people - empowering them with a goal."

The goal was to establish a reputation for innovation, to taking care of customers well - treating them with honor and respect - and to have a product that is seen as the best thing out there, he said.

"Many in the industry would say we've succeeded in many of these things," Kejr said. "The honor K-State has given speaks well of our employees. To have the industry out there say we provide good science without smoke and mirrors, that our word is true, that we aren't doing it for a quick sale, and for people to say the Geoprobe® product is the best is very humbling. I am very aware that image has been created by 'we' not 'me.' It's all the group - that's pretty satisfying."

Many of the innovations in the Direct Push market have been created at Geoprobe® and they pride themselves in trying to get new products out on the market first.

"It's hard on the ego to have to admit that someone else had a good idea - that they beat us to the marketplace. You can't get them all."

He said it is a very unorthodox manufacturing company because about 20 percent of the employees having some background in engineering, which could be double what the whole industry has combined.

"We believe in engineering," he said. "We think the more engineers the better."

The corporate climate he has created is based in his Christian beliefs.

"In reality all we have done is try to be faithful, work hard, put good people around us and behave like we believe God would have us," Kejr said. "If we have any claim to success, it is only because God has been inclined to bless us."

Kejr doesn't believe in heavy top-down management and tries to push decisions and responsibility down as far as he can. They encourage people to try new things and don't mind people failing as long as good thought-processes and decision-making processes were used to come to a decision. If a person doesn't fail a couple of times, they aren't trying hard enough, he said.

"It's fun for us to see our guys and gals gaining skill sets, responsibility and becoming more valuable to the company or to themselves," Kejr said. "We have not had many move on that have worked here. Of those who have left, it is hard to be critical of a guy that has a great opportunity he wants to pursue."

Although he doesn't like the word "team" because it has been so overused, he considers every role important.

"The whole is bigger than the part," he said. "We all have a vested interest for the company to be successful. There is no virtue in doing your piece well while those around you struggle to be effective. It's better to go help your fellow employees and improve the total company performance."

He has expanded his Christian values in other ways too. During Monday morning breaks, the company has a prayer and devotion for employees who want to participate.

"We have to remember what's really important in life - the skills we have and the opportunities we have in the world have been given to us," Kejr said. "Let's enjoy them and make good use of them. If there was anything we should have learned from 9/11 was that the job isn't the most important thing. When planes start hitting buildings, you start thinking about family and friends and how you're going to spend eternity. We all need to have a regular check up. The devotional serves to do that."

Kejr thinks the future is full of new things to design and build, but it's the relationships that are formed that will have the most lasting impact.

"Look at your own life," he said. "It hasn't been a class or a book. It has been three to five people that have had the most impact on your life. Now it probably helped that you had that class or read that book, but it's been the people. The same thing happens with employees, vendors and our clients. Some things are more important than being a successful business.

"While there are all kinds of business opportunities in the world, as you get older, you realize they are not the only opportunities worth your investment of time."