His engineering career began in 1901 when he began work for the Cape Girardeau Northern Railroad Company. In l908 he was appointed county highway engineer for Cape Girardeau County. Practically all of the county roads were of earth construction with wooden culverts and bridges. Mr. Scivally worked ceaselessly building new roads with limited funding. In 1920 he was engineer in charge of the construction of the first concrete road in Southeast Missouri.
In l958, he received the first Alumni Merit Award given by the University for his distinguished fifty year career as a civil engineer.
