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Scott Steindler, CPD, LEED BD+C, ARCSA-AP(IS), GPD, GGP, FASPE, once took a Predictive Index personality test as part of a hiring process. The results told him the last thing he should be was an engineer. Yet, despite this, he spent more than 20 years successfully designing plumbing and fire protection systems. Steindler has worked in every major aspect of the plumbing industry over his 31-year career — from field plumbing, wholesale estimating, inside sales, plumbing and fire protection design to his current role as the national industrial manager for Watts Water Technologies.

Steindler’s dedication to service is not limited to professional organizations, as he has served on many non-profits and civic volunteer organizations throughout the years. He has served as the president of the Rose Float Association, held district and unit positions with the Boy Scouts of America, Operation Homefront, Evacuteer.org, and is currently volunteering for the City of Phoenix as a member of the CERT Team in addition to being a Park Steward.

That sense of service combined with his passion and excitement for the plumbing industry has earned him honors as PM Engineer’s 2024 Plumbing Engineer of the Year.

EARLY INFLUENCES

Growing up in San Pedro, California, Steindler admits that he had no intention of ever getting into the trades. Steindler held many jobs in his youth — from flipping burgers to working in the motion picture industry, but finally found his home in the plumbing industry.

“I was introduced to plumbing by my former brother-in-law, who ran a plumbing company,” Steindler says. “One day, he said, ‘I can probably get you a job at the pipe and supply warehouse.’ I interviewed with Familian Pipe and Supply and was hired as the yard worker. I started my career in the plumbing industry with a push broom in a pipe yard sweeping up and putting all the fittings away. This is a great way to learn the fundamentals of the various components and parts involved in plumbing.”

From there, he moved up to a driver position, and then progressed as a warehouseman to a counter sales position before leaving to work with his brother-in-law doing service and repair plumbing at his company. He ended up back at the pipe and supply company as a counterman and assisting with branch operations with Ferguson Enterprises.

“Wholesale was a starting point, but during a counter day, I met David Dawson with Dawson Co., a Southern California rep firm, who said to me, ‘You seem a little bright to be doing this job. Do you want to come over and work for us as our estimator?’ Everything has been a progression of one foot in front of the other.”

While at Dawson Co., Steindler attended his first ASPE meeting.

“At my second ASPE Los Angeles meeting, I was recruited by the current president at the time, Cory Nakanishi, to serve on the board as the corresponding secretary,” he says. “Through ASPE, I eventually crossed paths with Peter Kraut, who was an engineer. He asked if I was interested in trying engineering. Of course, I was! He scooped me out of Dawson, and I went to work for ME Engineers. This truly changed my path.”

Steindler notes he spent many years working for several different engineering firms after that, but the one that made the largest impact on his career was Donald F. Dickerson Associates.

“Donald F Dickerson Associates was started by none other than Donald Dickerson, the founding member of ASPE,” Steindler explains. “I worked with Don and his daughter, April Trafton, who was eager to mentor me. They instilled in me a desire to serve the society and learn my profession. April would give me homework assignments because I was interested in developing. That’s where I cut my teeth. I always considered Mr. D more than a friend — he became more of a father figure to me. I was on my own at a very young age and didn’t have any real parental influence. Don became a friend, confidant and mentor, and April was right there running the design aspect of the firm and helping me learn the trade and how to be a great engineer. To this day I miss Don more than words can express. The profession lost an icon when he passed.”

Steindler has resided in various parts of the country, from Los Angeles to Charlotte, North Carolina to New Orleans to his current home in Phoenix.

“Having done field plumbing, estimation, wholesale, engineering, being a manufacturer’s representative, and now, working as a manufacturer has given me more of a well-rounded approach and understanding of the various roles people play in projects,” he says. “I’ve worn all the different hats. The one thing I can tell you for certain is that my experience in plumbing design has proven itself to be invaluable. It’s what differentiates between what most people think of when they think of a salesperson — to someone that can talk about the product, who understands the various applications and how things fit together in the real world.”

He’s also worked on quite a few notable projects along the way, including hospitals, arenas, K12 schools, office buildings and even The Griffith Park Observatory.

“The Superdome in New Orleans is one of the ones I'm most proud of for sure,” he says. “It was a major renovation project after Hurricane Katrina. It was basically destroyed. The Dome was the heart of the city and I was proud to be a part of the reconstruction following the storm. I was with WDG Architects, and we added new concessions, toilet facilities, clubs and all sorts of awesome modifications. I even unofficially ‘saved’ the Super Bowl when the power failed in 2013, and the flush valves still worked because I specified the mechanical overrides on all the water closets and urinals! It’s a dubious honor, but I’ll gladly accept it.

“Another interesting project was the New England College of Pharmacy — that was a cool job,” Steindler adds. “The 50,000-square-foot LEED facility included classrooms, a pharmacy practice lab, sterile products lab, pharmaceuticals lab, vivarium, drug information center and research laboratories. I also worked on the Macalester College Institute for Global Citizenship. That was a LEED Platinum project. That was fun because it was my first heavily influenced LEED project and it eventually became the office for Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of the United Nations.”

PASSIONATE WITH A COMPETITIVE STREAK

There’s no doubt that Steindler is passionate about the plumbing industry — just listen to him talk about foodborne pathogens.

“The biggest thing I am working on with Watts right now has been food safety and the initiative to stop the spread of foodborne pathogens,” he says. “I'm sure everyone has heard about the recent food recall with Boar's Head. Plumbing is important, when you mess it up, people die. Entire civilizations have been wiped out by poor sanitation, that’s why I’m so passionate about this. We as engineers and designers need to take our responsibilities very, very seriously.”

As part of his current role, Steindler does many Lunch and Learns and other educational presentations for plumbers, engineers, wholesalers and reps.

“I always stress to the plumbers, ‘I don't think you realize with great power comes great responsibility, giving the whole Spider-Man speech,’” he says. “You can make people really sick, or you can protect the health, safety and welfare of the public. That’s what we are charged with, that’s what ASPE’s mission is. You need to take that seriously and perform your duties with due diligence. Just look at things like pathogen outbreaks, such as the one at Blue Bell. That pathogen developed in a drainage system, spread throughout the facility and resulted in sickness and even death. Boar’s Head is yet another Listeria outbreak. They’re not sure where it started yet, or, if they are, they’re not saying, but I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts I know where it started. I’m proud of being part of the campaign to help prevent foodborne pathogens and in food production facilities and protect public health.”

Readers may or may not have noticed the professional alphabet soup that accompanies Steindler’s name. Turns out, it started as a friendly competition between Steindler and Richard Hanson, formerly with SyncroFlo.

“He and I had a little competition going to see who could get the most certifications,” Steindler says. “Every time something new would come out, I’d go take the test.”

Then, Steindler took it a step further and became an ordained minister online and recently got his PhD in theology through the internet.

“I’m Dr. Rev. Scott Steindler, CPD, LEED BD+C, ARCSA-AP(IS), GPD, GGP, FASPE,” he laughs. “All joking aside, most of these are serious professional accreditations and you must be proficient at the subject matter to earn and maintain them. Professional accreditations serve to instill confidence and recognize those that are most qualified to perform specific duties in plumbing design.”

FROM COLLEAGUES TO FRIENDS

Though Steindler didn’t plan for a career in the plumbing industry, once in, he stayed because of the people and relationships he made over the years.

“It’s a very welcoming industry,” he says. “There are people within the industry that have a passion and a desire to share their knowledge. When somebody does that and goes out of their way to mentor you, it becomes more than just punching a clock and doing a job. Sharing in somebody's passion lit that fire in me as well. I’ve met so many people all over the country, and they have been consistently in my life. I haven’t made colleagues, I’ve made lifelong friends.”

Christoph Lohr, PE, vice president of technical services and research for IAPMO and a PME columnist, met Steindler through his role with Blücher when he called on Lohr as an engineer.

“I got to know Scott when I had the pleasure and privilege to serve with him on the ASPE Society Board of Directors from 2018 through 2020,” Lohr says. “Scott and I agreed on some things and debated others, but I was always impressed with his professionalism and dedication. It wasn't until later that I got to know Scott on a personal level. Scott has been a wonderful friend to my family for several years now and has really been there for me during some of my most challenging times. He is a dedicated and wonderful father to his children and has one of the highest senses of duty to fulfilling his responsibilities as a man. I am glad to call him my friend and appreciate his sage wisdom time and time again in my life.

“Even though Scott is in technical sales, he is a plumbing design professional at heart, and so we always had very technical discussions that were solutions-oriented,” he continues. “He also tends to think differently about problems and solutions — Scott is not prone to group think. This is a real asset when unique situations arise, as he is able to come up with innovative ways to get to the heart of an issue. His ability to properly understand the legal framework sets him apart as well. What many people don't know about Scott is that he enjoys learning about the law as a hobby, and so when it comes to understanding litigation mitigation from a design professional standpoint, he is one of the best in our industry to be able to identify potential problems.”

Kelvin Kennedy, senior plumbing designer at RTM Engineering Consultants, and last year’s PME Plumbing Engineer of the Year, met Steindler on the streets of downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, during the ASPE Expo in 2012.

“We were both running for seats on The National Board of Directors of ASPE, me in my second term as Region 5 Director, and Scott was running for the Position of Vice President of Membership,” Kennedy says. “It was a cool Halloween night in the city and the patrons were all dressed up in their Halloween gear, and there is Scott dressed in a knee-length raincoat and a pair of Chuck Taylor sneakers! To this day, I don’t know what he had on under there, and I never want to know. It was at this moment that we bonded as we went from club to club having a great time together because we both shared the same personality traits of ‘living life to the fullest’ and ‘don’t give a damn’ attitude toward what people said or thought about us. It's this motto that has served us well in our friendship and in our service together on the Board of Directors of ASPE.”

Kennedy notes what he likes most about working with Steindler is someone always knows where they stand with him.

“Good, bad or Indifferent, he speaks his mind and he will tell you how he feels,” he says. “The key to this for him is that he speaks from a level of intelligence that is unmatched in our industry. There are not many people in this industry who will or can speak the level of knowledge he knows and do it in a way that you can’t question what he says without giving his response complete thought. He’s that good. Scott has displayed passion and knowledge in his career as well in the positions he’s served in on the Board of Directors of ASPE for as long as I’ve known him.”

James Hunt, director of industrial sales, Blücher, was thrilled Steindler was chosen as this year’s Plumbing Engineer of the Year.

“Scott and I met in 2010. He was a selling agent for the pump company I worked for at the time,” Hunt says. “As a lifelong engineer up to that point, he was very well connected to that community. Having worked in multiple markets and on some very high-profile projects, Scott was widely known and well respected. Scott is nothing if not passionate. He cares about what he does. He always wants to do it right. He owns his mistakes and is constantly aiming to be better at what he does. He is truly a Renaissance man. Whether it’s his passion for the plumbing industry, Jeeps, ‘Star Wars’ or whatever else might suit his fancy, Scott is all in.”

Hunt adds that Steindler is not only a very knowledgeable and adept plumbing engineer, but he is also incredibly funny and likeable.

“There is a stereotype that engineers are often quiet and not overly demonstrative,” he says. “Scott is the antithesis of that stereotype. He is passionate, boisterous, likeable and very funny. He is also gentle, humble and empathetic.”

One of Hunt’s very first encounters with Steindler was when he was visiting his Atlanta office one day. “I went out to lunch, and when I came back to my office, it was covered with Post-It notes. They were on my desk, chair, computer, monitor, whiteboard, backpack, under my keyboard, etc. You name the spot, there was a Post-It note. There was nothing written on any of these Post-It notes, save one. In the center of my monitor was one Post-It note that read: ‘You’re out of Post-It notes.’”

Karl Caouette, CPD, plumbing technical director at Henderson Engineers, has known Steindler since 2002 when they met at an ASPE Los Angeles Chapter meeting.

“Scott is extremely knowledgeable about the product he represents and the codes and standards associated with those products,” Caouette says. “The level of support that he provides and his attention to detail is first class. Back in the day when Scott worked as a consulting engineer, he always took a practical approach to his designs that not only brought value to the building owner but was also constructible for the contractor. He is very methodical about the way he approaches projects, always making sure that the project is designed correctly. Watching Scott grow over the last 22 years has been amazing and I’m honored to call him a true friend.”

THE LATEST CHAPTER

Steindler is pretty happy where he ended up, noting that the best career he’s had has been with Watts Water Technologies, which celebrated its 150th anniversary this year.

“My friend Jimmy Hunt had transitioned to Watts and asked if I wanted a job,” Steindler says. “I asked, ‘Doing what?’ He said, ‘Selling floor drains.’ I said, ‘I would rather watch paint dry.’ It didn’t sound interesting at all. But eventually, I changed my mind and said I’d like to give it a try. I ended up falling down the rabbit hole, and being the consummate nerd, instead of just selling the product, I asked myself, why are we selling this product? What is it good for? And that's when I discovered things about opportunistic pathogens, acoustics, epidemiology, whole genome sequencing, metallurgy, the importance of velocity and flow rates, and all the various and fantastic things that go along with a properly designed sanitary system. Watts provides me enough latitude to explore and develop. If I'm doing the same thing all the time, I'm doomed. Watts lets me run with my strengths and encourages me to try new things. They give me the latitude to explore different roles and different skills that I have or have been working toward. Watts is eager to help those who have a desire to grow professionally. I finally found my home, Watts is an ethical, dynamic, and great Company to work for..”

Additionally, Steindler notes that there were selfless actions on the part of Watts’ senior management during the COVID-19 pandemic that were really meaningful to him and showed him the character of the Leadership Team. “It is truly a privilege and honor knowing that I am working with such a great Company and such fine Individuals who honestly care about their customers and employees. Watts participates in global philanthropic efforts that prove their dedication to global stewardship.”

Steindler’s greatest source of pride is in his three children. His daughter, Molly, 32, lives in Arkansas raising his grandson, Joel. He has two boys, Zane, 20, and Liam, 16. Zane Steindler received the Alfred Steele Scholarship from ASPE in 2023 and is currently enrolled in his sophomore year at Arizona State University College of Engineering. Zane Steindler is following in his father’s Industry footsteps working for PIR Sales, a manufacturer’s representative located in Phoenix, while he attends school. Liam Steindler attends Madison Highland Prep, an Engineering STEM School in Phoenix, and plans on pursuing a career in engineering himself. Steindler has been a single father raising his boys for several years.

“It’s difficult at times, but my boys are hard-working and trustworthy, so I can do what needs to be done to support them with complete confidence that they are on the right path while I am on the road. They are far better men than I will ever be,” he says.

Steindler likes to spend his free time paddle boarding, hiking, off-roading, and learning to play guitar. “I have many hobbies and am always looking for something new to try. I continuously grow and develop personally and professionally. Life’s a trip, que, no?”

OVERCOMING INDUSTRY CHALLENGES AND LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

One of the greatest challenges facing the industry currently is the decline in participation amongst new plumbing designers in trade organizations, Steindler notes.

“That might be just a generational thing, but people place more value on their social life than they do on dedicating time to develop their career outside of business hours. Work/life balance is important, but, as my career has grown, I attribute much of my success to volunteer service and the networking opportunities it provides. You must be present to reap the benefits. It seems like you've got your same core group of people that have been going to these things for years, but it seems like the influx of the newer generation of engineers has certainly diminished.”

Steindler notes the way to fix that is to deliver material to people in the way they want it delivered.

You can’t allow yourself to be mired in tradition, where we’re going to have a seminar and you have to be there in person,” he says. “If the lockdowns taught us anything, it was the ability to reach out in innovative ways. Maybe somebody can't take the time to be away from their newborn, but they're willing to sit with their kid in their arms in front of a computer. Maybe it's the topics that we're doing instead of recycling the same things year after year, maybe they're looking for something a little bit more exciting. One of the best meetings we ever did in Phoenix was when we brought my son's STEM school. We had 35 kids learning about wastewater epidemiology. We brought a speaker from Arizona State University to talk about pathogens in wastewater systems, how they can tell the mood of a city by looking at the level of stress hormones in the wastewater system or can respond to health risks such as an increase in narcotics use and overdoses in geographical locations. It's these groundbreaking topics that interest people and keep them engaged. I'm not going to diminish the value of the fundamentals because they are the base of the pillar, but these emerging technologies and new systems are what fans the flames. ”

Steindler’s advice to young engineers is simple: “Communication is key.”

“One of the big takeaways I learned from Don Dickerson, he said, ‘We’re not in the business of engineering, we're in the business of communicating. Whether that's via an email, producing a drawing or making a phone call, you have to effectively communicate,’” he says.

“Also, listen to the people with more experience than you,” Steindler continues. “Attend the ASPE and other trade organization meetings, such as IAPMO, ASSE, ASHRAE and others. Ask your boss to give you homework — I did. Develop a passion for what you do. If you’re going to do something, invest yourself in it and give it your best. Look for ways to be of service and help those who are newer than you.”

Steindler also notes he is concerned about the role AI will have on the future of the industry. “AI is a tool to be utilized, but we cannot allow it to take the place of highly trained and qualified professionals and become lazy and complacent in our duties.”

Steindler adds he wishes he had the space to thank and recognize all the people who have been instrumental to his career. “I wouldn’t even know where to start, there are just so many people I have worked with the have made such a major impact in my career and my life.”

“I do want to mention what an honor it is to be recognized as someone working with a manufacturer as the Plumbing Engineer of the Year,” he says. “Most people don’t realize exactly how much design work the reps and manufacturers do in support of the plumbing engineers. And it’s nice to be recognized for our efforts.”