I was born at the beginning of the space age. When I was 10, I watched Neil Armstrong step out onto the moon on my family’s black & white television and could not recognize anything. The picture was upside down and full of static noise but, I saw history as it happened. One of the benefits of the space race was the digital computer they took with them. It was 8-bit and powerfully weak by today’s standards but, it got them to the moon and back. The technological benefits of racing to the moon were (by the late 1970s) one could buy a personal home computer and the computer/video game revolution began. I was coming to the age that I needed to figure out what it was I was going to do with my life as far as an occupation. As a child, I wanted to be an astronaut but that was probably not going to happen. I come from a family of artists and teachers but didn’t feel art school was a good investment and very expensive. When Star Wars came out, I thought it was the greatest thing ever to be made. I was fascinated with art direction and learned one of the conceptual artists was a technical illustrator at Boeing. My dream job would be in special effects as a model builder and matte painter for sci-fi movies but how would I do that? Clover Park Vocational Technical offered a course in television production that I was interested in but had a long waiting period due to the popularity of the class. Another course that was offered was Technical Illustration with no waiting list. I enjoyed drawing, so I enrolled in the course in January and got a job at Boeing in June 1979. Work at Boeing was before computer-aided drafting (CAD) or drawing programs – old school… using T-squares, mechanical pencils, technical pens from West Germany & India ink on flax linen. Using a large Itek camera to photocopy work, and a bee’s wax to stick the photos to boards. Then came the X-acto or scalpel and rub down arrow lines with a burnisher to produce illustrations in technical manuals.

Boeing started to digitize publications in the early 1980s using a computer that filled two rooms, on a raised floor for the cables to run underneath. Built by the International Information Inc. called Boeing Computer Aided Publication System (BOCAPS). They contributed to the movie Tron by making the wireframe image of the Master Control Program face. I spent hours scanning tables in a scanner that was the size of a small pickup truck because Boeing didn’t want to “key” in the data. Today, they would have a machine to read the text. I quit after 8 years and went to college for the first time at 28 and got an AA degree at Green River Community College (GRCC). Still looking for an occupation, I did odd jobs drafting maps and buildings until I heard of a thing called GIS. I knew King County was using GIS from working in the Assessor’s office as an appraiser assistant. I wanted to learn more but, at the time the only way to learn GIS was to get a bachelor’s degree in geography at the university. I had neither the time, money, nor brains to do such a thing so, I thought this too was not going to ever happen.

Then Green River Community College started to offer a GIS certification program and I applied. GRCC was not really prepared for us students. They had no computers, software, or instructors, and many people dropped out for various reasons but, I stayed with it! In 1995, I got a job at King County Roads Maintenance. At the time, ESRI had just come out with ArcInfo 7 and the Grid & TIN extensions only ran on UNIX machines. The version before (ArcInfo 6) came with a paper encyclopedia of help manuals 3 feet thick. I wrote Arc Macro Language (AML) in vi for ArcPlot maps and got published by ESRI. Around 2002, the county acquired its first LiDAR dataset. Thanks to the excellent instruction I got from one GRCC instructor in Grid & TIN, I went to work on helping build products derived from LiDAR such as hillshades, contours, and watershed basin delineations using ArcInfo 7 TIN & Grid and AML. I assisted the King County GIS Data Coordinator in orthophoto & impervious projects and built catalogs for users. In the mid-2000s, ArcMap 8 & ArcCatalog 8 replaced ArcInfo 7 and AML was replaced with Python. I migrated from remoting into a UNIX box to using a PC for ArcGIS 8. The second & third generation of LiDAR was processed using ArcGIS Desktop. In 2015, ArcGIS Pro came out to replace ArcMap.

In 2024, after 3 LiDAR generations, 5 impervious layers, 2 tree canopies, and 10 orthophoto projects over 33 years at the county, I finally grew too old to upgrade and came to the age for retirement and so did ArcMap. Late last year, the King County GIS Center hired Valerie Bright to take over raster projects so I could pass on my experience and knowledge. I’m glad to see Valerie has taken on my challenge and I am very optimistic about the future of King County’s orthophotography acquisition program. I have built 5 story maps that attempt to describe the history of GIS Center’s raster projects and my career in King County.

LiDAR

Orthophotos

Impervious

LiDAR derived Building Height (BHT) & Vegetation Height (VHT) with Tree Canopy

Art of Geographic Information Systems Story map that demonstrates the various projects I have worked on.

Valerie Bright has a very good portfolio and a fine pedigree from working at USGS. We have been working together for a smooth transition of responsibilities. I depend on her for help and feedback with the transition, and with the latest software packages and upgrades. She has many new skills and will be a positive upgrade to the group. Valerie will be providing the 2023 orthophoto data to the county’s cost-share partners using a new app developed from ESRI’s Experience Builder: King County Aerial Imagery Program Application, built as one of Valerie’s first projects. Partners will be able to click to order which ortho tiles they want and see what the costs will be and how much disk space will be needed – all tracked through the web app using ArcGIS Online.

I was incredibly lucky to become a GIS analyst and be able to work at King County on data I found so fascinating. I thought being able to visualize terrain data in 3 dimensions was so cool and to animate it was incredible. I got to have two different physical models made and provided images, animations, and maps for many clients. Being published by ESRI was an honor that I’m very proud of. When I worked at Boeing, I worked on weapons of mass destruction. When I chose to pursue a career in GIS, I wanted to do something positive for the planet. I’m the last of the original builders of the GIS Center’s raster catalog and I leave these 5 story maps for historical reference, technical information, and visual entertainment of what I did at the county at the beginning of the 21^st century.

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Editor’s Note: The King County GIS Center would like to thank Victor High for his 33 years of valued service to his colleagues and the citizens of King County Washington. We commend Victor for his steadfast mission to the art and science of all things Raster GIS, his passion for 3D, and animations at the King County GIS Center.

 Bravo Victor! Time to take your bow.