In 2017, Wyatt Keady departed the halls of Sutherlin High School, ending an era that started in 2005 when he began kindergarten at East Primary School. During his school years, Wyatt enjoyed seeing his friends and participating in track, cross-country, and FFA. In FFA, he competed in soils and tractor driving and worked in the greenhouse. Competing in FFA and sports built his confidence and allowed him to explore various interests beyond his career ambitions, and track and cross-country built his physical stamina and fitness. The courses he enjoyed the most were math, technology, and all the agriculture classes. He uses what he learned in his math class daily and recently built his own computer based on what he learned in the technology courses.
The most challenging aspect of school for him was not knowing what he wanted to do once school was over. In his sophomore year, he started working at Dairy Queen, a job he kept until just before high school graduation. As the end of his senior year approached, he considered timber cruising, log scaling, and firefighting as possible careers. During his final month of high school, he started training to begin work with the Douglas Forest Protective Agency (DFPA) to join wildfire crews during the summer and fall months. The DFPA job was quite strenuous: traveling rough terrain, working in the heat, dust, and smoke, being exposed not only to the weather but to bees, snakes, and poison oak, and needing to be aware of burning and falling material. Wyatt has the utmost respect for the men and women who work on these fire crews. In the off months, when Wyatt was not working on a fire crew, he delivered pizza.
In 2019, during one of these off-seasons, a family friend was looking for assistance in surveying, and Wyatt began working with him. To his surprise, Wyatt discovered he enjoyed this work, being outdoors and seeing new locations. With the encouragement of his employer, he enrolled in UCC’s Surveying and Geomatics Program and graduated with an Associate of Science Degree. He then enrolled in the Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) Geomatics Program, Surveying option, and he anticipates completing his Bachelor of Science program in the Winter term of 2024. After graduating, he will prepare for and take the tests to become a licensed Professional Land Surveyor. I.E. Engineering employs Wyatt, who works out in the field most days. As part of ten-hour workdays Monday through Friday. This position, too, has its hazards, and like in his previous work with DFPA, he must remain aware of his surroundings. On one of his jobs, while posting a quarter-mile line, he stepped on eleven hornet nests (fortunately, he was not stung, though).
Wyatt looks forward to the end of his workday when he gets to return home to his family. He married another Sutherlin graduate, Haley McCaskill, and they recently welcomed the birth of their daughter. At home, when not studying or playing with his daughter, Wyatt can be found tinkering with cars, doing a bit of gardening, grilling, and learning to use his 88-key keyboard. He is also interested in starting beekeeping.
Wyatt would like to encourage those students who are not interested in college or uncertain about what to do following high school to consider a career in the trades. There is a demand for those interested in the surveying field, and jobs are available to those with no schooling and those with bachelor’s degrees. He would like to see the high school agricultural curriculum incorporate a component that explores surveying as a career, perhaps by offering a two-to-three-week exposure to the use of equipment and fieldwork.