Fergus to retire from Rice Fergus Miller

Rice Fergus Miller Inc. has announced the retirement of Dave Fergus, long-time principal and market leader for the firm’s robust fire and emergency services market, will retire June 1. Fergus joined the firm in 1987, shortly after the founding by Steve Rice, who himself retired in December 2021. The two led the firm, then known as Rice Fergus Architects, until Mike Miller joined in 1990. Early in his career, Fergus worked on a variety of project types as the burgeoning Bremerton firm got its start. In 1995, an opportunity to design a fire station for Kitsap County Fire District 1 presented itself, and Fergus jumped at the opportunity. That project opened his eyes to an industry of people and projects that he felt he could truly serve with passion, and he built a career around doing so. As Fergus approaches retirement, he does so with a portfolio of over 250 fire stations, training structures for firefighters, vehicle maintenance and logistics facilities and 9-1-1 centers. Fergus’s passion for the fire service industry also led him to become a Fire Commissioner for Central Kitsap Fire & Rescue, a position he held for 10 years. Through that work, he had the opportunity to ride along on calls and participate in training activities. He experienced, first-hand, the demands that firefighters endure to save lives and keep communities safe. Thanks to Fergus’s leadership, Rice Fergus Miller is one of the Northwest’s most prominent fire and emergency services design firms. One of the projects Fergus is most proud of was the design of the Kitsap 9/11 Memorial. While not only honoring the 343 FDNY firefighters who perished that day, the memorial recognizes those who survived and those who saved the life of someone else at the cost of their own. As Fergus steps away from the firm he helped build, he does so with great confidence in the next generation of leadership. Four principals will continue to lead the firm: Greg Belding, Jennifer Fleming, Dean Kelly and Gunnar Gladics.