Ernest Lee Levingston, a prominent Lake Charles engineer who died Monday, Nov. 19, built his contract engineering firm from
one person — himself — to its present force of 220 employees, a colleague said.
Levingston Engineers Inc. has grown from the primarily contractor engineering drafting firm he founded in 1961 to a full-service
consulting engineering company, Mark Nixon, chief executive officer of Levingston Group LLC, said.
The company provides civil, electrical, mechanical, control systems, structural and process engineering, Nixon explained.
“He was actually a man of great insight,” Nixon said. He foresaw a great future in the consulting engineering business when
most companies had their own staff engineers.
“He started contract engineering in this area,” he said.
Levingston started adding accounts one or two at a time. The present company has 48 engineers on staff, 136 design and drafting
employees plus administrative and clerical employees, Nixon said. It now has 57 projects under way and works on an average
of 300 projects a year.
“It was his integrity that allowed him
to build our business,” Nixon said. “His work was something you could
hang your hat
on. He always considered the needs of his customers, but he
considered even more the people who worked for him. He developed
relationships with the staff, and he believed if he was loyal to
them, they would be loyal to the company.”
“He was one who allowed you to use your abilities to better the company,” Nixon said.
Levingston sold the company to long-time employees Nixon and Dan Leveque in 2008.
Levingston was 91. He was born in
Pineville and grew up on a Johnson Bayou farm, where he performed all
the chores expected
of farm boys. He attended McNeese College and worked full-time for
his grandfather’s construction company, T. Miller and Sons.
He attended Tulane University. He served in the SeaBees naval
construction in the South Pacific and as an officer in the Navy
hydrographic office in Washington.
When he returned to Lake Charles he
worked in the engineering department of Cities Service Refining Corp. in
Lake Charles
before moving his family to Baton Rouge in 1957, where he worked
for an engineering firm and earned his bachelor of science
degree from Louisiana State University. He returned to Lake
Charles and started his practice as a licensed professional engineer.
The first desk in his office on Pujo Street was made out of a
door.
He and his wife, the former Kathleen Bordelon, recently celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary. They had three children,
the late David Levingston, James Levingston and Jeanne Levingston Owens.
Funeral services will be held at 10
a.m. Saturday, Nov. 24, at First United Methodist Church of Lake
Charles. Burial in Graceland
Cemetery will be directed by Hixson Funeral Home. Visitation will
be from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at the funeral home and 8 to
10 a.m. Saturday at the church.