Bermudian Charles Nearon didn't finish high school, but his hard work and perseverance has paid off -- and he's now been recognised in the US as a civil engineer who's "done it his way''.

Mr. Nearon was recently featured in the March newsletter for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), an organisation with hundreds of thousands of members.

His accomplishments are somewhat unusual, especially since he did not obtain a Masters degree which is the standard for civil engineers.

Mr. Nearon, who has been a member of ASCE since 1971, expressed his concern that mandatory requirements for Masters degrees may close the doors on some aspiring to be engineers through alternative means -- especially since his own success is proof that alternative methods can work.

The 62-year-old engineer said his story is about a person who decided to make more of himself as a result of encouragement from those around him.

Mr. Nearon, who was born in Bermuda, attended Northlands school and had a "short stay'' at the Berkeley Institute before dropping out at age 15.

"At age 15, I was a labourer at the US Air Force base in Bermuda digging trenches -- and I was pulled up out of the trenches, if you will, by a surveying group,'' said Mr. Nearon.

"From that point on, I aspired to do something different -- to make more money and not to work as hard,'' he added.

"I realised that the people doing construction layout were better paid than those actually digging the trenches, and that gave me the motivation to learn surveying.'' Mr. Nearon said the late Fred Pearman and Thatcher Adams gave him a good groundwork in construction surveying.

"They gave me such good groundwork that I was able to go to the US and get a job right away,'' he said.

"But I was motivated to move from surveying to engineering while working in Pennsylvania because it was so cold during the winters,'' he chuckled.

Mr. Nearon studied civil engineering on his own through textbooks and correspondence schools for more than 15 years and passed both of his exams on the second attempt.

Mr. Nearon became a licensed P.E. and established his own independent consultant company called "Pembroke Associates'' in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where he still lives with his wife Barbara and son Quinton.

Since then, Mr. Nearon has worked in Buffalo, Venezuela and Long Island on a number of different projects.

He's now working on a 200-room townhouse-style hotel in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.

And Mr. Nearon is also reviewing and preparing the demolition documents and scheduling for a new runway at Philadelphia's International Airport.

His path has circled back to Bermuda for a few projects, as well -- he was the department manager for Wedco during the 1980s, and he's currently working as a consultant for the Bermuda Land Development Corporation to upgrade the sewage treatment plant at Southside.

The article in the ASCE newsletter has garnered quite a bit of attention for Mr. Nearon, and he's received calls from a number of people in the US including struggling students seeking advice.

"I've gotten quite a few telephone calls... a lot of them are from people who knew me, but didn't know I hadn't graduated from high school or college,'' he said.

"I had two guys who called -- one from Colorado and the other from Vancouver -- who were questioning whether they should try (to make it without completing their degree).

"My advice to both of them was to continue -- I don't believe that everyone should do what I did, that's just who I am.

"And besides, the easier way (to get the degree) is to have instruction -- it's not easy sitting up at night with a textbook with no clue.

"If I wasn't such a bull-headed, stubborn person, I don't know if I would've made it,'' he chuckled.

My way: Bermudian Charles Nearon, pictured here on his boat in Pennsylvania, taught himself to become a civil engineer even though he left school at age 15.