December 06-2013
. . . engineer
Kambiz Movassaghi, the former transportation secretary of Louisiana, who came to the state from Iran at the age of 19 and never left, was inducted last month into Louisiana’s Transportation Hall of Honor, primarily for his role in accelerating the state’s largest road and bridge construction program.
Movassaghi, 73, is believed to be the highest-ranking Iranian-American in any government in the history of the United States. But he never got as much attention as many other office holders because he was appointed, not elected, and he served in a state government, not the federal government.
Movassaghi was transportation secretary in the cabinet of Gov. Mike Foster from 1998 to 2004, and often called for tax increases that drew only mild support from Foster.
“He was a straight shooter,” Gov. Foster said last week of Movassaghi.
Foster and others praised Movassaghi’s role in 2002 in pushing to completion a $5.2 billion road and bridge program of 16 projects. Voters approved the massive public works program in 1989, but it was so big it was languishing when Movassaghi—known as Kam—took office.
Under program changes guided by Movassaghi, the list of projects went from pay-as-you-go over 30 years to a 10-year effort for most of the work. “He was able to bond it out,” Gov. Foster said. “It has really saved the state.”
Movassaghi is the Hall of Fame’s 44th member, and the first since 2007. One of the other members is the late and infamous Gov. Huey P. Long, who was famous in Louisiana for the construction projects he pushed in the 1930s. Nationally, he was infamous for demagoguery.
Movassaghi grew up in Tehran and arrived in the United States at the age of 19 in 1959. His trip began with a bus ride from Iran to Turkey followed by a train ride from Istanbul to Munich. Next, he traveled by sea from Germany to New York and finally, he took another train from New York to his final destination—Lafayette, Louisiana—where he still makes his home.
Movassaghi rose to become a Louisiana engineering icon and leader in academic, public service, civic and business circles.
He had remarkable success in a state that was viewed at the time as insular and unwelcoming to foreigners, including immigrants from the North. But things have changed and Louisiana’s current governor, Bobby Jindal, was born in India.
Movassaghi received a bach-elor’s degree in civil engineering in 1963 from the University of Southwestern Louisiana — now the University of Louisiana-Lafayette — and later masters and doctoral degrees from Louisiana State University (LSU).
Movassaghi was the Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) from December 1998 until May 2004, leading a staff of 5,300 professionals and managing an annual budget of $1.3 billion.
Before his appointment as Secretary of DOTD, Dr. Movassaghi was head of the Civil Engineering Department at his alma mater.
He is now president of C.H. Fenstermaker & Associates, an engineering consulting firm in Lafayette.