Land Surveying - Mapping - Land Planning
Meet the Stars
Our survey staff works closely with homeowners, local contractors, real estate agents, town and county officials to provide quality services to our entire client base.
Our survey staff works closely with homeowners, local contractors, real estate agents, town and county officials to provide quality services to our entire client base.
ROBERT ANDERSON
Bob is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and has been a licensed as a Professional Land Surveyor since 1981. He has been surveying the San Juan Islands since the 1970’s working with our firm under then owner Thomas Starr, PLS. Bob has supervised large scale mapping projects in such diverse locations as Hells Canyon, the Aleutian Islands, Peru, Mt. McKinley and guided the survey climb team that re-established the elevation of Mt. Rainier.
In 1999, Bob received an appointment from the United Nations to be the technical advisor in Bhutan for the Nation Urban Surveying & Mapping Group. After 5 years in the Himalayas, Bob returned to the San Juan Islands and assumed the position of Chief Surveyor for Star Surveying, purchasing the firm in 2007.
JAMES WILSON
James began his surveying career in South King County. After his time in the Navy and starting a family, he returned to surveying. Over the next decade James performed surveys throughout Washington state, northern Idaho, Montana and spent a year in Texas doing right-of-way acquisition surveys for the Texas State Department of Transportation as part of SAM inc.
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Throughout his career James has completed numerous boundary surveys, sectional breakdowns,
significant tree surveys, steep slope analysis, topographical mapping, short plats, long plats, construction as built and layout surveys, site plans, and flood elevation certificates. A favorite experience in his surveying career was spent in north central Washington, performing sectional breakdowns which required interpreting 100-year-old survey field notes and searching for original Government Land Office
stone monuments.
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In 2008 James passed his L.S.I.T. exam, and within the last few years acquired his Professional Land Surveyors license. He is currently preparing to enroll in the Certified Federal Surveyors program, which by doing so will allow him to preform surveys on any Federal Land and Indian Reservations within Washington State.
BRENNAN PRICE
Brennan graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison 2012 with a degree in wildlife ecology. He then moved to Washington and worked for 911 for Skagit county for 6 years. Deciding that a career change was in order, Brennan attended and is finishing up Renton Technical College’s survey program. Brennan is also in the application process for his LSIT. Joining the Star team in Fall 2021, Brennan continues to learn the ins and outs of land surveying and serves as the Anacortes’s office party chief and lead cad operator.
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Having recently started a family, Brennan enjoys exploring the northern Puget Sound in his boat with them. He also enjoys working on his recently purchased cabin on John’s Island, one of San Juan county’s outer islands. Brennan continues to enjoy surveying and exploring the unique area that is the northern Puget Sound.
MICK BENALES
Mick began his survey career in 2018 working as a grade checker. Always a math, weights, measure and tech fanatic he quickly took to the mathematics required to operate the rods, rovers and robotic total stations for bolt placements and structure layout before moving to machine control and guidance. In recent years he has worked as a GPS specialist in construction surveying.
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Mick has long fostered an interest in land survey and jumped at the chance to develop his skills under the mentorship of owner Robert M. Anderson, PLS. He is currently in the application process for his LSIT and plans to pursue his PLS thereafter.
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A family man, Mick enjoys spending his free time exploring the outdoors with his wife and children. Recently relocating to the San Juan Islands from Oregon, Mick and his family are thrilled to join San Juan Islands local community.
ATHENA KAUFMAN
Athena recently moved to Anacortes to settle down with her husband, dog and reptiles. Currently serving as a field survey technician to support the Anacortes branch getting hands on experience. She developed a lifelong passion for the outdoors and natural S.T.E.M fields as a child, where Guatemalan cloud forests, the Australian outback, and Yellowstone National Park served as her backyard.
ADAM
CHOI
Adam is the newest addition to the star surveying team. He specialises in data quality and field acquisition with Star Surveying, alongside minor CAD work. With a background in geology and geophysics, specifically in mineral exploration in the SW states, Alaska near Denali, and recently in Zambia, Africa. Adam spent the last summer as a commercial fisherman in SE Alaska and Bristol bay.
KELLIE
KALER
Kellie has 30 plus years experience with office management, and is happy to be using this experience in a small local business in a move away from the corporate world.
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She is new to the world of Surveying and loving learning. Kellie married her high school sweetheart and enjoys fishing and spending time in the salt water with him and their grandkids in her free time.
DAVE
ELLINGSON
After a short stent in the US Army in 1968-69 and several years teaching in Alaska, Dave was hired by Tom Starr, PLS for a survey tech position in Friday Harbor in 1978. Except for a 2 year teaching time in the Amazon region of Peru, 1986-88, Dave’s time was spent practicing the skills of a land surveyor from the Friday Harbor office. I received my license in June 1995.
Short term humanitarian projects using the skills learned in the survey profession included design, staking and overseeing construction of a 10,000 person refugee camp in Albania during the Kosovo War, homeless services including a subdivision in Haiti after their devastating earthquake, assisting an orphanage expand their facilities in Kenya, and oversee the operation of emergency water treatment plant after the Indonesian earthquake.
After early retirement, Dave was called back to assist a former survey work partner in Lynden WA area from 2016-21.
Currently Dave is assisting another former work partner, Bob Anderson, owner of Star Surveying in the Anacortes office.
CHRISTY
HUGHES
Christy serves Star Surveying as our Land Planning Coordinator. She assists clients in San Juan, Skagit and Island Counties through various land planning projects.
She enjoys working with Star Surveying’s project managers, drafters, field crews and clients.
Star Surveying is proud to have memberships with the following Organizations and Associations:
