This month, Robert Smith celebrated his 25-year anniversary with Damuth Trane. Robert started with the company in 1994 as a Service Technician and later moved into his current role as Lead Technician in 2017. Prior to joining Damuth Trane, he was the owner of his own residential HVAC business.
As a Lead Technician, Robert provides training and technical assistance to service technicians, sales and engineering staff. While he specializes in centrifugal and screw chillers, he also diagnoses, repairs and maintains other types of commercial equipment for Damuth clients. On his time with the company, Robert stated, “After 25 years, many changes are evident at Damuth, from our humble home at Edwin Drive, to our newer location at Cavalier Boulevard with its improvements along the way. During that time, I also changed - taking on different roles as projects and responsibilities evolved.” He continued, “through it all, I remained true to my life’s goal: to be a ‘life-long learner’ - continuing my education in multiple disciplines, both formally and informally. Working at a place like Damuth encouraged me to grow, put goals in place for my future, and helped me to achieve most of those goals.”
Robert’s passion for continuing education is evident in that he holds several professional licenses, certifications and has undergone many years of both education and field-based training. He received his associate’s in Business Administration from Tidewater Community College and went on to earn a bachelor’s in Organizational Leadership and Management from Regent University. In 2016, he received an additional associate degree in HVAC Principles; each degree Robert has earned was given magna cum laude designation. Notably, he’s also been a contributing author to a Transportation Research Board (TRB), Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP), and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) manual in reference to HVAC Principles.
Bob Gunderson, Service Operations Team Leader remarked, “at Damuth Trane, our goal is to delight our clients with a great experience. When that involves working on complex building systems that include every type of HVAC equipment, we need really smart people on the team. Robert Smith is one of the smartest people I have ever worked with, and always willing to share that knowledge with other team members. We are fortunate to have him on the team.”
Robert lives in Virginia Beach with his wife, Ruth, and has three adult daughters. Looking towards the future, he expressed: “I plan to be [at Damuth] for a while - keeping those chillers running, providing the sales and engineering staff with field expertise, assisting clients with their HVAC needs, and aiding in the training of new technicians. Once I retire, I hope to take my exceptional wife across the country and across the seas to experience the world in all its vastness and beauty.”