Ron Staley

Ronald Staley is retired senior vice president and executive director of historic preservation for The Christman Company.  He joined Christman in 1984 and founded their Historic Preservation Group business unit in 1992 following his work in leading the restoration of the Michigan State Capitol and realizing that there was a need for construction managers to specialize in historic preservation.

Historic preservation has taken Staley to over 200 high-profile, award-winning projects in the US and abroad. He has led work on buildings in the Keweenaw National Historical Park; 500 year-old churches in Poland; Notre Dame’s famed golden dome; the Virginia Capitol, which was designed by Thomas Jefferson and built in 1785; the Henry Ford Estate Fair Lane; Fort Mackinac; the Hemingway estate in Cuba; multiple projects at the US Capitol including the 2005, 2009, and 2013 inaugural stands; and, most recently, the rehabilitation of Detroit’s famed Michigan Central Station where he co-authored Ruin to Revival documenting the construction process.

Staley and his wife, Linda, believe in giving back to Michigan Tech. They support the University’s engineering management and construction management programs. He guest lectures and serves on the Engineering Management Advisory Board and served on the advisory board for the construction management program which is jointly administered through the College of Business and the Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering Department.  His overall goal for their support: give engineers business skills. “Engineering and business degrees are the best combination you can have.”

From the CEGE Academy Induction October 2025