Passion project: Noah Brown turns hobby into engineering job
by Margaret Hurlbert
December 31, 2021

WILTON, Iowa–Recent college graduate and Wilton native Noah Brown cannot remember a time before he enjoyed engineering. “I’ve always liked making things,” he recalled.

As a fifth grader at Wilton Elementary School, Brown’s science teacher, Diane Moritz, helped him grow his love for engineering by inviting him to join Science Club. Led by her husband, David Moritz, who worked for Stanley Consultants, the students in the club cooperated to build a working hovercraft. Intrigued, Brown worked with David Moritz on several different hovercrafts over the years and enjoyed testing them out on the river and bringing them to boat shows.

Outside of school, Brown further developed his interest in engineering by working with his grandfather to repair antique radios. Brown found he had quite a knack for working with electronics. He often showed his radios, mostly from the 1930s and 1940s, at 4H competitions and even brought his work to the Iowa State Fair several times in high school. This interest, paired with the work he did in science club, helped him realize just how much he enjoyed working with electricity. “I started pretty early with it and I wanted to stay with it,” he recalls.

During Brown’s senior year of high school, he got his first look at what professional engineers do when he did a one day job shadow of David Moritz at Stanley Consultants. Brown liked what he saw, and after graduating from Wilton Junior-Senior High School he went to the University of Iowa to study electrical engineering.

During his sophomore year of college, Brown applied for an internship with Stanley Consultants through a job fair at the University of Iowa and asked David Moritz to put in a good word for him. Brown got the internship and has worked part time at Stanley Consultants for the past two years. Other engineers at Stanley noticed his skills and good teamwork, and the company offered him a job.

In late December 2021, he started his job at Stanley Consultants, which for now consists of working on fiberoptic communication design and medium voltage power design. Brown felt the timing quite fitting, as it allowed him to briefly work in the same department as David Moritz prior to his retirement.

Even before he went off to the University of Iowa and started contemplating a future in electrical engineering, Brown hoped to take a job in Muscatine County, as his parents and all of his grandparents continue to live in Wilton. As he begins his career as an engineer at Stanley Consultants, he welcomes the opportunity to stay close to his roots and to continue sharing his talents to inspire the local community, just as David Mortiz inspired him in his childhood. “I like it–I always wanted to stay near Muscatine,” he remarked. “I have a lot of ties here.”

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