Why Hepburn and Sons LLC?
Our MISSION is to provide expert advisory and engineering services as well as develop and transition advanced technologies that will revolutionize U. S. warfighting capability for the 21st century
Our VISION is to be the leader in rapidly increasing U.S. warfighting capability by providing breakthrough solutions to the DoD’s challenges through the development of both technology and our people
We do this through our company VALUES
Patriotism | Integrity | Independence | Thought Leadership | Work Ethic | Tradition | Employee Development
Our Beginnings
Hepburn and Sons LLC serves as trusted advisors to the American maritime industry. Our passion is for naval engineering. Our Chairman, retired Navy Captain Rick Hepburn, is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in several states. He served as Supervisor of Shipbuilding in Bath, Maine, as the Chief Naval Architect for combatant ships (NAVSEA 05D) and is a recognized expert on dry dock construction and operations, as well as ship repairs. After retirement from the Navy and serving in various defense industry executive positions, Rick and his family established Hepburn and Sons LLC to continue fueling Rick’s passion for serving the United States Navy engineering community. The Hepburn family founded the firm in Manassas, Virginia in 2010. The original family crest, with direct ties to medieval Scotland, was adopted as the company logo. The family motto is Keep Trust. The firm was founded on this Biblical principle.
We Are Your Trusted Advisors
Our technical expertise spans a variety of engineering disciplines including mechanical, electrical, nuclear, systems, information technology and cybersecurity, missile defense, material science, naval architecture, and naval engineering. Our strengths include program management, electromagnetic pulse (EMP), and warfare and combat systems support to customers including the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the Surface Combat Systems Center (SCSC) Wallops Island, the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the Electric Ships Program Office (PMS 320). We offer Fortune 500 firms technical analysis, quality, life cycle cost estimating, proposal preparation, business development, marketing, and capture management.
The HEPBURN Name
Hepburn is a family name of the Anglo-Scottish Border that is associated with a variety of famous personages, eponyms, places, and things. Although commonly a Scottish name, its origins lie to the south of the border in the north of England. Specifically, the name is thought to have derived from either the town of Hebron or Hebburn, both of which are in the Northumberland. The origins of the name are suggested to be the same as that of Hebborne from the Old English words heah (“high”) and byrgen (“burial mound”). Alternatively, it could mean something along the lines of “high place beside the water”, as the word burn is still widely used in the Northumbrian and Scots languages as a word meaning "Stream".
WE VALUE HERITAGE
KEEP TRUST
Next to Chillingham Castle, there remains a Bastle Tower where the family originated. This was the seat of a line of the family until the eighteenth century when that branch died out having left only a female heir. However, it is as the Earls of Bothwell that the Hepburn family are perhaps best remembered. This branch of the family originated in Lothian when a Hepburn was granted land for saving the Earl of March from a horse that had lost control. This family first became the Lords of Hailes before being granted the Earldom of Bothwell.
There were also Hepburns of Waughton, thought by some to have branched off from the Hailes line, thought by others to predate it. Another line was the Hepburns of Beanston, and yet another was the Hepburns of Athelstaneford. All of these families were prominent in various ways at various junctures of Scottish history, but all were primarily located around the East Lothian area.