Following a stint in the Army and some time as a framer, John A. Tate moved with his family to Colfax, Washington. He received the BSCE cum laude from Washington State University in 1986.

He worked with the Ratti firm and with Smith & Huston in Seattle before moving to Yakima. He worked for Structure Engineering, Incorporated (1990-95) and R. S. Cameron, Architects (1995-2006). He described his work with R. S. Cameron as "building big concrete boxes and filling them with machinery or fruit or both. Our office will oversee the development of a site, from a bare site to the packing and shipping/sales of packed fruit. I do the civil and structural work for the office, as well as some of the construction coordination/administration." He then started his own consulting firm, John A. Tate, Consulting Engineer.

In 1995, John co-founded the SEAW South Central Chapter, and has served on the South Central Chapter board for 19 years (as of 2014), including seven terms as President.  In 2003 he became the first South Central member to serve as SEAW State President.  He chaired the SEAW Snow Load Committee 2000-2014.  His research on snow load effects on cold-storage buildings led to a modification of Snow Load Design in ASCE 7, as he presented to the Snow Storm Colloquium in Seattle following the Yakima 1996-97 snow storm event and at several Northwest Conferences and State retreats.  John has served on the SEAW Exam Committee as a grader, and assists in grading the National Council of Examiners of Engineers and Surveyors 16-hour Structural Exam.

The Lifetime Service Award nomination form submitted by the South Central Chapter notes that “John is the backbone of the South Central Chapter and is SEAW’s biggest local advocate. He is always touting the benefits and tremendous value of SEAW; within our Chapter, to local building departments, and to everybody at our local, semi-annual SEAW seminars,” and that “John is regularly working with our local building departments to further their understanding of structural engineering concepts and code requirements. It is a fairly daunting task, as many of the code officials do not have an engineering background, and none of them have a structural engineering background.”

Posted April 2012; updated May 2014