Ed Lund is bad at retirement.

His first attempt lasted a mere three days before a fellow military veteran-turned-architect recruited him to help lead a major wellness project on a college campus. “I felt like I had all this knowledge and experience, and what a waste not to pass that on somehow,” Ed said. “At this point, my role should be to share all that. I’m just not a sit-around person.”

Three years and a string of federal projects later, Ed is in his second week as a project manager and QA/QC review specialist at TSP in Sioux Falls. He’ll work part-time, in office Mondays through Wednesdays on a schedule that mirrors his wife’s second career. It turns out that Leslee, a former Barnes & Noble manager, is just as bad at retirement. Ed already is at work on the American Indian Student Center for South Dakota State University. “It’s a beautiful building,” he said.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Ed got his early education in the construction industry by watching his uncles in the excavation business. He was a quick study in the classroom, too. He received 19 scholarship offers for college. Instead, he went to “sunny southern Asia,” where he spent a portion of his U.S. Navy service in Vietnam. He was honorably discharged after four years in naval aviation and returned home to earn his associate of science degree in architectural drafting and estimating from Dunwoody Industrial Institute (now known as Dunwoody College of Technology). Outside of class, Ed worked three part-time jobs to prepare for another life change: His wife, Leslee, was expecting their first child.

To support their young family, Ed took a job managing projects and writing estimates for a roofing company in New Ulm, MN. They moved to Sioux Falls in 1976, when Ed started at Nioda Builders. Since then, he’s worked in project management, drafting, contract administration, and property management for several local architecture firms and development companies. He even ran his own small remodeling business for a few years in-between jobs at firms.

Along the way, Ed built a massive network of industry contacts and formed friendships with other technical professionals. A few of those colleagues now are his teammates at TSP. Ed worked previously with Design Technology Director Jason Nelson and BIM Coordinator Justin Halse at another firm. And he’s known Jared Nesje since TSP’s future CEO started as an intern running blueprints in “the dungeon” at Architecture Incorporated.

Ed’s résumé backs up his claim that he’s worked on “every type of building you could imagine.” He’s completed more than 250 projects for CenturyLink’s legacy company, US West. As vice president of commercial construction for Ronning Companies, Ed also managed 54 properties. He’d walk apartment complexes during the construction phase, drawing on walls and floors with the crayon he always kept in his pocket as he taught a class in plan mark-up on site.

“Our biggest failure is not getting people in the field to see how something really comes together and works,” Ed said. “It’s so important to develop relationships with the tradesmen who actually build these designs.”

At the home he and Leslee share, Ed is both drafter and contractor. There’s no shortage of projects at the vintage 1903 charmer, where he puts to use his experience as a former Board of Historic Preservation member.

Ed’s strong expertise is hands-on and in the field. His calm demeanor means he doesn’t “get too shook up about things,” though his hockey habit helps, too. Like any good Minnesotan, he grew up with the game and coached several youth teams. He still plays a few times a week.

When Ed needs to recharge, he and Leslee head to Big Stone Lake, where he restored a cabin on the South Dakota shore. There, he spends his time kayaking, fishing, reading on his dock, or snow shoeing.