History

In 1932, Mr. John A. Stokley completed formal training as a geologist at the University of Kentucky and took a job with the Kentucky Department of Highways. In this capacity, he wrote procedure manuals for the exploration and testing of soil and rock for new highway construction. Prior to WWII, he also worked briefly for the Corps of Engineers in Cincinnati, Ohio where he applied his geologic expertise to the design of building foundations. Following the war, Mr. Stokley joined the faculty in the Department of Geology at the University of Kentucky where he taught a generation of Kentucky's Civil Engineers how to apply geology in their design and construction of earth and earth supported structures.

In 1956, Mr. Stokley recognized that the new Interstate Highway construction program would require significant soil engineering expertise. In response, he ended his successful teaching tenure to begin a new business to provide this expertise to government and private clients, Mr. Stokley literally decided to start a business to do what he had both done as a public employee and taught his students.

Stokley & Associates emerged at a time when history reveals similar pioneers emerging in this new specialized discipline of civil engineering all around the country. Within 10 years, the Interstate highway program was in full swing and soil engineering work became standard procedure for nearly every new civil engineering project throughout the country. Demand for geotechnical engineering grew rapidly and by the early 1970s, Mr. Stokley and the other pioneers had trained and spawned a growing field of competition in nearly every major city in America.

In 1972, Mr. J. Richard Cheeks graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Engineering with the BSCE and MSCE degrees. Mr. Cheeks' Masters work concentrated on this emerging discipline of geotechnical engineering. Mr. Cheeks began his private practice of geotechnical enginerring with Law Engineering Testing Company where he worked first in Jacksonville, Florida and then Nashville, Tennessee. At Law Engineering, Mr Cheeks applied his technical skills and developed a reputation for his attention to detail and his integrity.

Mr. Stokley's desire to slow down and retire merged with Mr. Cheeks' desire to return to Central Kentucky in 1978 when they joined to form Stokley-Cheeks and Associates, Inc. in 1980. Mr. Cheeks became President of Stokley-Cheeks and Associates, Inc., and Mr. Stokley retired in 1981. To date, Stokley-Cheeks has served over 5000 projects of all types throughout Kentucky and in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Indiana, and Tennessee. In 2006, Stokley-Cheeks will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The overwhelming majority of the Stokley-Cheeks projects have been for new project design and construction. Unfortunately, failures occur from time to time. Over the last 20 years, when these failures have geotechnical grounds, Mr. Cheeks has been asked to determine what went wrong and who was responsible. By the early 1990s, about half of Mr. Cheeks' personal practice was forensic, and in the late 1990s, Mr. Cheeks decided to attend law school and dedicate his remaining engineering career to forensics. Today, Mr. Cheeks provides forensic geotechnical engineering services to owners, design professionals, contractors and their lawyers.

Please feel welcome to explore the Stokley-Cheeks web pages here for more information about Mr. Cheeks, his work, and his expertise.

Mr. Cheeks' Resume'

Forensic Project Profiles

Mr. Cheeks' Sworn Testimony

Stokley-Cheeks Experience

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