What began as a summer job for Chris Keating, CID, has evolved into a career spanning contracting, distribution, manufacturing, association leadership, mentoring and most recently, a retired but still active consulting role. His decades-long commitment to the industry has culminated in lifetime achievement awards from both the New Jersey and North Carolina Irrigation Associations, as well as the Irrigation Association’s highest honor, the 2025 Industry Achievement Award.
Here, he shares how his career started, why he believes volunteering and education are important and shares his perspectives on innovation in the industry.
How did you get involved in the irrigation industry?
A neighbor worked for a landscaping company in New Jersey that was looking for help, and I was trying to earn money for college in 1974. They were traditional landscapers, mowing, trimming and general maintenance, and no one there really had the desire to branch into irrigation, except the owner, who struggled with the concept.
I took to irrigation and became their irrigation guy at 19. In 1978, I started my own small business and in 1980, rolled that into Middletown Sprinkler Company. That really kicked off my career because it gave me access to projects and experiences I never would have had on my own.
How did your career evolve through the years?
I spent about 16 years as a contractor while starting a small private fitness training business. I bought a health club in Florida with a partner and briefly stepped out of irrigation.
In 1992, I returned to New Jersey and to irrigation, but this time on the distribution side, working for a Toro distributor. Then the Toro distributorship in Virginia asked me to manage their irrigation business. It was acquired by a larger Toro distributorship out of North Carolina, and I was the general manager there. Around 2007 to 2008, I worked for Toro directly and retired from the company in December 2024.
What does retirement look like?
It’s not a full retirement. When I was with Toro, I did a lot of content writing, training and teaching for one of my customers, Conserva Irrigation, a nationwide irrigation contracting franchise system headquartered in Richmond.
When I retired, Conserva wasn’t ready to let me go, and asked if I would continue some of that work part-time. It’s the perfect balance of all the things I’ve enjoyed about the business, the teaching, the mentoring and seeing businesses succeed.
You’ve been deeply involved with the IA and state associations. What inspired your volunteerism?
The company I worked for in the 1970s was one of the original members of the New Jersey Irrigation Association. I saw successful competitors working together on education, legislative issues and industry initiatives. Through the 1970s and 1980s, I volunteered heavily with the New Jersey association, serving on education committees and teaching classes, even to my competitors.
Middletown Sprinkler was an early IA contractor member, and we pursued IA certifications. The IA asked me to pre-test their certification exams, which led to an invitation to serve on the IA Membership Committee, then the IA Board and eventually the Irrigation Foundation, where I became chair.
During the 2007-2008 downturn, it became hard to sustain both the IA and the Foundation as separate entities. Under my leadership as chair, we transitioned the Foundation into the IA, preserving its educational and career development mission while streamlining governance.
On the local level, when I moved to Virginia, there was no irrigation association, and there was a serious drought. Rick Clelan, CLIA, CIC, and I co-founded the Virginia Irrigation Association to help contractors and golf entities push back on draconian legislation. Drawing on my experience as president of the New Jersey Irrigation Association during the licensing process, I also helped the Carolinas Irrigation Association develop and pass licensing legislation.
I’ve always felt that if I have something to give and someone can benefit from it, I want to find the vehicle to make that happen. Four years ago, the Toro Company asked me to participate in an international mentoring program run by the U.S. State Department, and I wound up becoming a business mentor for a nongovernmental organization in Chile. It was an all-female organization whose mission was to eradicate animal testing in the cosmetic industry. It taught me that my skills are transferable not only to other industries but also to other countries and that business and human behavior are the same regardless of language barrier or business type.
A lot has changed since the 1970s. Which innovation has excited you the most?
There has been a lot of innovation. But there is an assumption that everyone is deploying it to the best possible extent. They’re not. Innovation flows from manufacturers through distribution to contractors and, finally, to end users. Deployment is not keeping pace with technology.
Take “smart” controllers. I dislike the term; we should call them weather-based controllers. Without proper implementation and accurate data, they don’t perform much better than old mechanical controllers. Too often, I see connected devices essentially programmed to behave like an antiquated controller.
On the delivery side, I think the opportunity to save water in the industry is with high-performance nozzles that increase uniformity and efficiency and can save a tremendous amount of water. It’s the same with pressure-regulated sprinklers. In many places, it has taken state legislation to nudge the market toward technologies we’ve had for decades.
What advice would you give to someone starting their irrigation career?
Learn irrigation first, understand soil, water, plants, climate and scheduling, and then learn how to install sprinkler systems. If your first lesson is at a distributor counter, learning head placement on a plan, you’ve skipped the beginning and jumped into the middle.
Treat education as a core business function. Pursue certification, join state and national associations and stay engaged year-round. The most successful people in any industry are those who constantly pursue education.
Don’t hesitate to volunteer. A rising tide lifts all ships, and you wind up getting out more of it than you put in.
