THE TM

HARDROCKSUMMER 2016 THE HARDROCK TM

The HardrockTM is published twice a year by the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. The HardrockTM is a trademarked name of the Alumni Association. Submissions of articles and photographs are encouraged. We reserve the right to edit for style, clarity, and content. For information, free subscriptions, or address corrections: South Dakota School of Mines & Technology Office of University Relations 501 E. Saint Joseph St. Rapid City, SD 57701-3995 605.394.6082 [email protected] www.sdsmt.edu/hardrock/

Executive Editor Ann Brentlinger

Managing Editor Fran LeFort

Photography Brian Hill Fran LeFort Dani Mason

Writers Jade Herman (IS 09) Fran LeFort Dani Mason

Graphic Designer Brian Hill

Contributors Devereaux Library

About the Cover Vanesa Gomez, a senior applied biological sciences major from Rapid City, has spent the summer immersed in healthcare as a patient care technician at Regional Health. SUMMER 2016 THE HARDROCK TM

Ishaan Shetye David LaPorte PAGE 18 PAGE 22 Fomento Scholars Chasing Disaster

Vaughn Vargas with Michael Black (ME 86) PAGE 24 Here to Serve

2 ALUMNI NETWORK 17 CAMPUS INSIDER

5 FROM THE PRESIDENT 21 INNOVATION

Rebecca Ceremuga PAGE 12 6 PROFILES 27 CLASS NOTES Pre-Health Pathways 8 RESEARCH REVIEW 36 AREA MEETINGS Continue the story at www.sdsmt.edu/hardrockextra

Summer 2016 1 ALUMNI NETWORK

Greetings Alumni and Friends, The best part of the job as alumni president is to Alumni have the opportunity to meet so many of our alumni. Bonnie and I took a road trip in April to visit family Association in South Carolina. I wanted to take advantage of the Board of Directors trip to get together with alumni along the way. Katie Harwood, our assistant director, along with our area President alumni representatives set up alumni gatherings in Dave Berg (ME 73) Kansas City, Kansas; Atlanta, Georgia; Pittsburgh, President Elect Pennsylvania; Columbus, Ohio; and Peoria, Illinois. Karen Swindler (ChE 88) Special thanks go to Jessica Hartman (ChemE 03) and Bill Jones (IE 96) in Atlanta, Susan “Booty” Immediate Past President Kuhns (GeolE 75) in Pittsburgh, Spencer Ferguson Mike Alley (GeolE 73) (CE 14) in Kansas City, and Steve Bickett (ME 04) in Peoria. It was great to see and talk with everyone and Executive Vice President give updates on campus happenings. Tom Zeller (ME 70) The Alumni Association has implemented some recent changes. Our new director, Larry Treasurer Simonson (EE 69), started his position April 1. Larry is a familiar face around campus Mark Ingalls (CSc 92) and to many of you. Before coming to the Alumni Association he traveled extensively to athletic events and alumni gatherings, taking advantage of these opportunities to meet and engage alumni. We look forward to continuing to improve our alumni contact and your involvement with the campus. Board Members to 2016 Marius Ellingsen (ME 00) The Alumni Association office has moved out of its familiar location in Surbeck Center in William Jones (IE 96) anticipation of the construction of the Gail and Guy March Alumni Center. The office is Anne Putnam (ChE 05) temporarily located on the ground floor of the Foundation building located at 306 East Bill Tucker (GeolE 56) Saint Joseph Street, one block northwest of Surbeck Center. This move took place in July. Once constructed, the Gail and Guy March Alumni Center will be located just off campus Board Members to 2017 at the corner of East Kansas City Street and Birch Avenue. The university asked for our Deb Bienert (EE 78) space in Surbeck to start a Student Success Center for the fall 2016 semester. In the words Steve Gassen (IE 97) of Alumni Association board member and math instructor Deb Bienert (EE 78), “the Matt Goeden (CEng 03) catalyst is the development of a Student Success Center with qualified, dedicated people to Lacy Pomarleau (CE 06) assist students with targeted academic advisement, testing, and tutoring as well as referrals Board Members to 2018 for other intervention and support services. I can speak from experience that these resources Denise Barton-Miller (Chem 76) have been missing for the past few years, and we need them desperately to aid students Eric Broughton (EE 97) who struggle with transition to college and its academic requirements.” The goal of the Shane Lee (MinE 10) Student Success Center is to retain students. We want to grow our student body by not only Bob Miesen (CE 61) recruiting new freshman, but by retaining current students. More changes, all for the better, are in the works to strengthen our engagement with alumni and our working relationships with SD Mines and our partner organizations on campus. Staff Thank you for supporting the Alumni Association by supporting the Mines Annual Fund. Executive Director Larry Simonson (EE 69) Go Hardrockers! Assistant Director Katie Harwood

Alumni Association 306 E. Saint Joseph St. Suite 100 Rapid City, SD 57701 Office: 605.394.2347 [email protected] Dave Berg (ME 73) http://alumni.sdsmt.edu 2016 President SD Mines Alumni Association

2 The Hardrock ALUMNI NETWORK

Plenty of shovels, buckets, and manpower were needed to build O’Harra Stadium. This photo was taken May 18, 1931, on the first day of construction of what would become one of the most unique football stadiums in America, with drive-up tailgating.

130 years ago 60 years ago 40 years ago 10 years ago 1885/1886 1955/1956 1975/1976 2005/2006 Franklin Carpenter is appointed The School of Mines Glee President Harvey Fraser retires, Grubby celebrates his thirty- the first dean at the School Club becomes the Singing and Richard Schleusener fifth birthday. A team of of Mines in December of Engineers. The National is named president. The Mines students competes 1885. The original building is Geographic Society and Hardrockers win SDIC with seventy-four other teams completed in February of 1886 the School of Mines hold titles in football and men's in the World Finals of the and eventually becomes known a twentieth anniversary basketball. The school’s ACM Programming Contest as the Prep Building. Later that celebration of the November inaugural women’s basketball and earns an honorable spring, the Bailey collection of 11, 1935, Stratosphere team, the Rockerettes, takes mention. The university begins minerals, ores, and fossils are Flight. After thirty-six years to the court for the first time offering a PhD in biomedical placed on display in the Prep at Mines, George Thompson, and finishes the year with a engineering in July. The School Building, the beginning of the superintendent of Buildings winning record. Engineering of Mines Concert Choir and Museum of Geology. and Grounds, dies. The new programs are offered at Master Chorale travel to an School of Mines television Ellsworth Air Force Base, and international festival in Ireland series entitled “Science and the first Guy E. March Medal and return home with three Engineering, A Key to Modern is awarded to Thomas Malone first-place trophies and a Life” begins in December (GenE 40). Bruce and Chuck second-place certificate. The of 1955. The thirty-minute Lien (Hon 77) purchase a School of Mines’ T-28 storm- program airs on KOTA portion of M Hill and give predicting aircraft is retired television on Friday evenings. the deed to the Endowment in the summer of 2006 after Association. During the thirty-four years of service. The nation’s Bicentennial year, the concrete canoe team places first spring commencement is held in the regional competition at Mount Rushmore. hosted by the School of Mines.

Summer 2016 3 Women in Science and Engineering at Mines hosted This photo was taken during civil engineering junior Nicole Thompson’s internship at BNSF Railway last summer. experiments for participants of the 2016 Princess Camp held on campus earlier this summer.

4 The Hardrock Dear Hardrocker Friends, The first time I remember meeting Becca Ceremuga was when she was finishing a 5K race that ended at the arch on the quad. I had heard about her semester abroad as a Brass Life scholarship recipient, but I didn’t know she was a runner, too. As is my habit, I suggested coffee when she asked if she could meet with me. Becca is studying mechanical engineering and was interested in finding an internship in biomedical engineering. Through connections at the Foundation, she ended up spending the following summer at Medtronic. When I saw her after her internship, she had learned something important. She knew that she wanted to spend time with patients, not just developing devices that could improve their health. The arc of her life was bending toward medical school and orthopedic surgery. It was a timely conversation. Mines has always placed several graduates a year into medical school and several more into physical therapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, and dental schools. With the degree in applied biology in its third year, we are getting more and more students interested in the pre-health professions. When our new provost, Dr. Demitris Kouris, came on board, he made strengthening the pre-health pathway a priority. It is now a reality. Students can major in anything and take electives to prepare themselves for healthcare fields. A new advisor who specializes in pre-health will come on board this fall to help coordinate the internships, job shadows, and special experiences that are unique to students interested in graduate school in the health professions. With half a dozen students a year, it is fairly easy to find placements, as we did for Becca. But as the program grows, we need to create close relationships with the healthcare industry as partners so that highly capable students are getting the experiences they need to be ready for the graduate school of their choice. To make sure we get it right, we’ve established an external advisory board of alumni and healthcare leaders who will meet with Dr. Kouris and the faculty twice a year to give us advice. Mark my words: within five years, the best pre-med program in the region will be at South Dakota Mines. Pre-health will take its place alongside so many other programs where we are best in class. Challenging academics, personal attention, the right internships and experiences, and a great value—that’s why our graduates continue to be in demand. Hard to beat! Warm Regards,

Heather Wilson President South Dakota School of Mines & Technology

Summer 2016 5 PROFILES Enduring Boyhood Friendship Leads to Generous Lisenbee Scholarship Less than twenty-four hours before he was to board a plane flourished with each phase of life. Lisenbee was Yates’ best for the five-week international field camp in Turkey, Alvis man when he married. Lisenbee was in his old campus haunt organizing rocks in the Mineral Industries Building depository. Last spring, Yates honored his childhood friend by establishing the $10,000 Alvis Lisenbee Scholarship, one of “Every rock has a story,” he says back in his office around the the most prestigious and highest-value scholarships at Mines. corner, room 302—the same office with the same chalkboard and possibly the same paint on the walls that he’s occupied “In many ways I’ve lived my life and career in a blissful since 1972, except for seven years during his tenure as bubble, surrounded by great students and colleagues and department head. getting to do pretty much what I love to do in a beautiful place. I was just stunned to hear about this scholarship,” By the time he says a humbled landed in the Lisenbee, seventy- Black Hills forty- five. four years ago, the structural “He’s done geology expert had something for me already honed his that I can’t repay, skills during years and it has taken of international a while to get my experience. Among head around that his exotic locales I don’t have to was Turkey. repay it necessarily Lisenbee, PhD, with money but considers Turkey a I can give back in second home along other ways,” he with his native state says. of New Mexico, Lisenbee retired where he has in 2006 but maintained close continues to be relationships with active as professor childhood friends. emeritus in the Department of Geology & Geological The most enduring of all has been with Peyton Yates, with Engineering teaching field camps throughout the Black Hills whom he hit it off as a second grader in Artesia, New and international locations. Mexico. They Scouted together, camped in the New Mexico “This generous scholarship from Peyton Yates is a testament desert, and explored its sand dunes in Lisenbee’s dilapidated to friendship between two boys who have remained friends 1943 Ford Jeep. for a lifetime. Alvis Lisenbee is a wonderful teacher and They each went on to successful careers, with Yates following exceptional geologist, and it’s a pleasure to have a scholarship in the family oil and gas development business. Despite the to help students continue his life’s work,” said Mines distance between them, the bonds of boyhood friendship President Heather Wilson.

6 The Hardrock PROFILES

School of Mines to the Launching the Next White House LinkedIn Alumnus Bill Tucker is Students Build Software to Help Companies No Ordinary Engineering Grad Find Their Perfect Campus Hire A degree from the South steered his career into Dakota School of Mines political and government & Technology takes circles. He was appointed graduates all over the world by President Gerald Ford in countless number of as a representative to the career paths well beyond United Nations Special Picture building LinkedIn from scratch. In one year. On a engineering. William Tucker Commission on Prevention three-person team. Of fulltime students. (GeolE 56) took his degree of Crime in 1977. In 1981, from Mines, as well as a he was invited to join the Kevin Hilt, Colton Fuhrmann, and Dan Halloran don’t juris doctor degree, all the White House Counsel’s have to imagine. Logging upwards of 3,200 hours between way to the Oval Office. office as a legal advisor for development, testing, documentation, and sales, the three President Ronald Reagan, computer science students launched KnewRecruit: a network After graduating with his a position he held for that connects the brightest students to the companies bachelor’s degree, he worked four years. He also served searching for them. as an engineer and served as a delegate on many in the US military The product resulted from a senior design project, in international US trips partnership with Pixel Pines. KnewRecruit streamlines before and assisted with political enrolling the recruiting process, searching for students, scheduling campaigns and state visits interviews, connecting at career fairs, and exporting ready- in law by world leaders. school made résumés. The platform creates interactive profiles that at the Tucker is now chairman showcase internships, projects, and more with embedded University and certified management videos, links, and even lists of fellow teammates—all of consultant in international filterable by any criteria of choice. Oklahoma. trade, strategic planning, Already, 100 computer science and mechanical engineering government affairs, and students from Mines are registered, along with 100 Tucker public relations for his began his business students from Black Hills State and forty recruiters company, Tucker & representing thirty-five different companies. career as Associates, in Washington. counsel for He also serves as area Check out the product online at https://beta.knewrecruit.com/ the Marathon Oil Company vice president for the SD and later rose to the rank Mines Alumni Association of assistant attorney general and organizes an annual New Master of for the State of Colorado. luncheon for area alumni. He argued one of his many Engineering Degree Offered precedent-setting cases “The School of A new Master of Engineering (MEng) degree program before the United Mines requires a offers advanced engineering, applied management, States certain amount and leadership courses, with emphasis areas in Civil & Supreme of discipline, Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Court and which I think Materials Engineering & Science. won. bodes well for a graduate The degree is a professional management program Leaving throughout aimed at working engineers. Delivery will be a mix of Colorado for their life,” traditional face-to-face courses, hybrid courses, and Washington, says Tucker. online courses. DC, Tucker

Summer 2016 7 8 The Hardrock RESEARCH REVIEW CASPAR Experiment Mines Leads the Effort to Unlock Secrets of the Universe at Sanford Underground Laboratory

In a cavern buried beneath a mile of rock at the Sanford “We know basic principles. We know stars produce energy Underground Research Facility, a School of Mines team by nuclear fusion, but there are things we need to understand has spent the last year assembling an accelerator that could better, including how the elements between iron and forever alter the scientific world with quiet bursts of energy. uranium on the elements chart originated,” says Strieder, who is the principal investigator on CASPAR. The Compact Accelerator System Performing Astrophysical Research (CASPAR) experiment hopes to understand the Only hydrogen and helium resulted from the so-called Big origins of the universe by mimicking nuclear fusion in stars, Bang almost 14 billion years ago. “All the other elements studying the smallest scale possible to understand the largest around us, potassium in our bones, the air we breathe, scale possible. oxygen, carbon, all of these elements were done in the stars, later in the universe,” says Strieder, whose childhood fantasy Led by South Dakota Mines’ Frank Strieder, PhD, the of traveling into space morphed into a study of astronomy team of physicists includes researchers from the University and then astrophysics. of Notre Dame and the Colorado School of Mines, as well as seven Mines students—three doctoral students and The experimental aspect of physics, to be able to work with four undergraduates. Strieder designed the forty-five-foot- his hands designing and building accelerators, was attractive long accelerator and has spent the past year purchasing or to him and ultimately led him to the deep underground machining parts, and then assembling them. Data collection experiments, where results are shielded from cosmic rays. is expected to begin within the next month. “It was always my dream to understand the stars, and I ended The idea behind the experiment is to generate the type of up doing experiments a mile underground in the same place energy inside a star, allowing scientists to understand how where Ray Davis made his groundbreaking discovery of solar stars were formed and where they are in their lifespan, which neutrinos. That was the proof that solar energy is provided by could lead to other discoveries about life in the universe. nuclear reactions, and here we are studying nuclear reactions. So everything is coming back full circle,” says Strieder. One kilometer away inside another cavity of the sprawling deep underground laboratory, Ray Davis observed for the Strieder previously worked with the world’s first underground first time fifty years ago that neutrinos came from the sun. accelerator project, the Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Davis earned the Nobel Prize for his discovery. Astrophysics, at Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy.

www.sdsmt.edu/hardrockextra

The South Dakota Mines team: junior Chamaka Senarath, doctoral students Tyler Borgwardt and Mark Hanhardt, senior Joseph Van Driel, and Frank Strieder, PhD. Opposite page: Strieder designed and built the accelerator, housed a mile underground at the Sanford Labratory in Lead.

Summer 2016 9 RESEARCH REVIEW

Researchers Uncover Dangerous Genes in Bacteria from SD Rivers

Kelsey Murray

The Big Sioux River and School of Mines faculty E. coli colonies embed Work progresses to gain Rapid Creek winding researchers Lisa Kunza, themselves in the human better understanding through the heart of South PhD, an aquatic ecologist, gut and thrive, was found in of the problem. Are all Dakota’s two biggest cities and Linda DeVeaux, 100 percent of the samples. traits carried in the same transform into nature’s PhD, a microbiologist bacterium, suggesting an playground during the and geneticist, along with In comparison, toxin gene immediate health concern, summer months, but they biomedical engineering presence in every other state or do different bacteria are far from pristine. They doctoral student Kelsey where similar experiments have different traits, posing are among the nearly 70 Murray, are searching were conducted only a future health risk? Is the percent of waterways on the for answers that could reached 30 percent. primary cause related to state’s list of impaired bodies ultimately improve public An additional $50,000 fecal matter washing into that do not meet water- safety. from the East Dakota Water the water after storms or quality standards. is it so embedded in the Their initial findings last Development District and the City of Sious Falls will ecosystem the problem is The Big Sioux has been on spring caused alarm among re-suspension? the list nearly two decades, Sioux Falls city and county fund SD Mines research to but until last year no one officials. Ninety-five percent discover the magnitude of Though answers remain had sampled it for genes of the samples pulled from the problem and potential elusive, the commitment that can make the often- Skunk Creek and the Big for super bugs to appear. to help ensure the public’s harmless E. coli into a Sioux, both in Sioux Falls, In Rapid City, Mines health is not. Kunza, disease-causing pathogen, contained a Shiga toxin researchers found disease- DeVeaux, and Murray also which sickens around gene that can turn E. coli causing traits from six presented at the South 95,000 Americans annually, into a dangerous strain. testing sites in Rapid Creek. Dakota Public Health according to the Centers for Intimin, a gene that helps Association’s meeting in Disease Control. June.

10 The Hardrock RESEARCH REVIEW

Ask the Turning Tomatoes Mines Expert into Electricity: Innovative Solution Jon Kellar (MetE 84), PhD Department of Materials & to Challenges of Metallurgical Engineering Modern Society

Q: Just how big is It’s not every day that you hear about decomposing fruit being the counterfeiting converted into electricity. In March, a South Dakota Mines problem in America, research team announced just that, highlighting but one example and how is research of innovative research being conducted on campus. at SD Mines and its The pilot project led by Venkata Gadhamshetty, PhD, Mines partner universities graduate students, and researchers from Princeton University and combating the Florida Gulf Coast University, involves a biological-based fuel cell problem? that converts tomato waste leftover from harvests, grocery store Scan to learn more shelves, and ketchup production plants into power. The inherent A: It has been estimated characteristics of the waste make it a perfect fuel for enhancing that counterfeiting is a $1.8 trillion enterprise, electrochemical reactions. up nearly threefold from a 2008 estimate of $650 billion. The counterfeiting impact is widespread; Researchers designed and built a new electrochemical device to nearly every major sector, as well as national test and extract electrons from tomato waste. The power output security, is impacted by its effects. Counterfeits is small: 10 milligrams of tomato waste results in 0.3 watts of account for roughly 1 percent of the medicine in electricity. But Gadhamshetty notes that with a scaled-up device the US and 10 percent to 30 percent in developing and continued research, electrical output could be increased by several orders of magnitude. countries. Fake automotive parts surged by 83 percent in the US in 2014. The success paves the way for an efficient low-cost new alternative energy source. “It might be possible to one day put this device at The reasons for the growth of counterfeiting can the bottom of my kitchen sink” to convert waste into household be attributed to increasingly transnational supply electricity, Gadhamshetty notes. chains, digitization tools available to counterfeiters, Internet sales, and the thirst of consumers to The project is especially important to Florida, where tomatoes are purchase bargain products. There is a clear and a key crop, and 396,000 tons in discarded tomatoes are generated present need for greater public understanding of each year. the illicit economy, and the creation of innovative security and anti-counterfeiting technologies.

In 2014 we established the Center for Security Printing and Anti-Counterfeiting Technology, a multi-institutional research center involving faculty from South Dakota Mines, South Dakota State University, and the University of South Dakota. The major facility of relevance is the Direct Write Laboratory at the School of Mines, where we use state-of-the-art digital fabrication equipment to embed and test covert messaging in QR codes and develop other research methods to combat the threat posed by counterfeiting.

Summer 2016 11 12 The Hardrock PRE-HEALTH AT MINES

Students Find New Pathways To Health Careers

With measured steps and her hands braced for a stumble, them to be comfortable. My job at the hospital is a great hands- Vanesa Gomez inches her way around the nurse’s station of on experience for me interacting with patients, and I also get to Rapid City Regional Hospital’s tenth floor. It’s a familiar ring see a lot more of what doctors do,” says Gomez, whose career around the northwest pod of the Orthopedics/Neurological/ goal is to care for patients as an emergency room surgeon. Surgical Unit. She’s circled around countless times on this one day alone. The new Pre-Health Pathways Initiative at South Dakota Mines is poised to propel students like Gomez into healthcare Her companion on this trip is Donte Bledsoe, hunched over careers by offering more research opportunities and seminars, and clutching a walker. “How do you feel?” she asks Bledsoe, developing stronger internships and professional experiences, as they slowly make their way back to room 1004. Gomez strengthening faculty advising and mentoring relationships, and prepares a pad with circulating hot water to help relax Bledsoe’s increasing support for student organizations. stiff lower back muscles. Announced last spring, the initiative is designed to prepare Gomez, a senior applied biological sciences major from Rapid students for advanced education, whether it is medical school or City, South Dakota, has spent her summer gaining invaluable a physical therapy training program. experience as a patient care technician, helping nurses in a variety of tasks to provide quality care for patients. With the new applied biological sciences major one of the fastest-growing at Mines, and the projected growing need for “You need more hands for certain things that you do for healthcare professionals for decades to come, the time was right patients, like turning them on their sides or helping bathe to launch the initiative. them. Sometimes they want to take a walk around. It’s just caring for patients, getting them what they need and helping “The program helps keep me focused, but I think most of the preparing is done by me going out into the world and getting

Summer 2016 13 experience. The school has aided me with great resources such established, and an external board is advising the School of as Dr. David Gilley and Lori Coble to guide me in pre-health,” Mines on how to continue shaping the program according to says Gomez, who is enrolled in a summer course with Gilley, needs. the lead faculty pre-health coordinator, who this summer is teaching how to deliver professional research presentations. Young alumna Erika Toyoda (IS 11) earned her medical degree from the University of South Dakota Sanford School of “The class is helping with confidence speaking and getting Medicine in May. While she says her academic preparation at more familiar with difficult subject matter, which we may Mines was more than adequate for success in medical school, come across when we’re out in the world as working health she felt somewhat on her own in figuring out the best way to professionals. I also hope it will help me a lot with medical advance her career. school interviews,” she says. “During my time at Mines, resources to aid preparation for a Graduates from engineering disciplines and any major can career in medicine were rather limited. It was quite difficult prepare for health professions—pre-health is not a separate figuring out what courses you needed to get into medical major at Mines—and an increasing number of graduates are school, seeking out physicians to shadow to gain clinical pursuing advanced studies toward becoming doctors, dentists, experiences, researching what resources were the best to study physical therapists, occupational therapists, physician assistants, for entrance exams, etc.,” says Toyoda, who is headed to a and other health-related professionals. residency in family medicine in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

“After a review saw that an increasing number of graduates “I am very excited to see the development of the new Pre- are being accepted into medical school and other advanced Health Initiative. The various resources and advisors specific health training programs, we are changing the way we support to students pursuing a career in medicine will be a wonderful students to help them establish successful careers and help asset and will open many doors for future health professionals,” meet the growing need for healthcare providers,” says Mines Toyoda says. President Heather Wilson.

The fast-growing Applied Biological Sciences (ABS) degree established in 2014 had grown to 82 students last spring semester. By 2019 it will be among the top three programs at Mines.

South Dakota Mines is the only institution in the state offering an undergraduate degree related to biomedical engineering, Rebecca Ceremuga whose emphasis, along with pre-med/pre-health professions, are Senior Rebecca Ceremuga is a mechanical engineering major the most popular of the ABS specialties. who plans to practice medicine as an orthopedic surgeon. She already completed an internship with a medical device Nationwide, healthcare occupations are among the most in- company and recently shadowed a surgeon. She looks forward demand and growing, with an additional 2.3 million positions to the additional resources and support opportunities that will expected to be added from 2014-2024, more than any other now be available to her as she prepares to take the MCAT for sector, including practitioners and technical occupations entry into medical school. requiring advanced education beyond a bachelor’s degree, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. “This is really going to help us focus on what we need in order to get into these pre-health programs. People are realizing that In addition to the academic advisor in their department, the School of Mines isn’t just an engineering school and that selected faculty members from each major are specializing in even with an engineering degree you can do other things with pre-health advising to help students ensure they have all of the it,” says Ceremuga. prerequisites for their post-graduate studies and help secure internships and research experiences essential for success.

Partnerships with hospitals, doctors, and other key leaders in the healthcare industry are being strengthened, or in some cases

14 The Hardrock GILLEY BRINGS BREAST CANCER RESEARCH TO MINES

Photo courtesy of Indiana University School of Medicine David Gilley, PhD, presents a series of colorful slides zooming in continue his research and have more of an influence in the lives on cells with the Amyloid precursor protein that could eventually and careers of students. lead to Alzheimer’s. He is much more at home analyzing slides with samples of human breast tissue from his cancer research. “I connected with people I met here on a professional level almost instantly. I was also impressed with the student population. They “When you give a talk, it’s good to have both words and pictures are very eager to learn. Most of my career has been spent with at the same time. A picture can be worth a thousand words,” he graduate students or post-docs at much larger universities, but here says. Other sage advice for these future healthcare professionals: it’s great getting to know the students in a smaller atmosphere,” he don’t memorize word for word, leave time for questions, and be says. prepared for “gotcha” zingers. As a post-doc himself at the University of California-San Just one year ago, Gilley was packing up his home near Indiana Francisco, Gilley researched under Elizabeth Blackburn, who University’s School of Medicine to join the South Dakota School went on to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2007 for her of Mines & Technology faculty ranks. He is widely recognized breakthroughs in breast cancer research. He continued that among the medical and scientific community for his breast cancer research at Berkley National Laboratory before landing at IU. research, which identified precursors in otherwise healthy cells that could be prone to mutations and, thus, breast cancer. His research requires patience and persistence in developing highly sensitive methods to identify cell changes and spending inordinate At Indiana University he primarily conducted research and had amounts of time searching for rare mutations, not from haystacks little interaction with students. At Mines, though, he is a faculty but fields of haystacks. lead on the university’s new Pre-Health Pathways Initiative to boost advising, support, and resources for a growing number It’s a lesson worth sharing with up-and-coming medical of students advancing to professional careers in healthcare. He researchers and practitoners because, despite incredible advances will resume his breast cancer research on the Mines campus this in medicine and technology over the years, “we are still in the dark fall once his laboratory is fully equipped, part of the chemistry ages of cancer research,” Gilley says. building’s $6.5 million renovation. “Our goal is to help students develop into a more complete person, Originally from Colorado, Gilley had been looking to head not just the stereotypical doctor or scientist. This is what I’m most back West for some time and was searching for a place he could excited about, watching their world expand and seeing their eyes open and witnessing them run when they get out of here.”

Summer 2016 15 NEVER TOO LATE Dr. David Slama Returns to the School of Mines Nearly 50 Years Later to Earn his Bachelor’s Degree

Mines’ reputation as a solid foundation for healthcare Even though he hadn’t earned his bachelor’s degree, Slama professionals stretches back decades. felt there was no need to delay his pursuit of an MD.

Nearly half a century after he left the university to pursue a “As Tech students we were just loaded up with science, and I career as a surgeon, Dr. David Slama (ABS 15) returned to had everything I needed without my four-year degree. That campus last year to complete his bachelor’s degree. dense science background was a favorable thing for me,” says Slama, who remembers taking his MCAT in a tiny room of Three months after graduating from Washington High the administration building. School in Sioux Falls in 1967, Slama packed up his Chevrolet and drove across the state to enroll in Mines, back in the Eventually, Slama opened a private practice as a general days when everyone called it “Tech.” He described himself surgeon in Rapid City and operated on patients to remove as a “science fair engineering type of kid” and tried physics, gall bladders, appendices, hernias, and cancers of the chemical engineering, and chemistry as majors before stomach and intestines. He and his wife Iris, a surgical realizing what he was really searching for in life was the assistant, ran the practice together for twenty-eight years sense of fulfillment that would come with helping people before Slama closed the doors six years ago to begin caring heal and improve their quality of life. for America’s veterans at the Veterans Affairs Black Hills Health Care System in Fort Meade, South Dakota. So a handful of credits shy of a bachelor’s degree, he left the School of Mines after being accepted into the University of Despite his flourishing career, the sense of something left South Dakota’s School of Medicine. At the time, the USD unfinished always nagged at him, and one day a conversation Med School was a two-year program, so from there Slama with a patient helped shape his life’s next trajectory. That went on to the Emory University Medical School in Atlanta. patient happened to be a Mines administrator. continued on next page

16 The Hardrock CAMPUS INSIDER

“Patients will tell you the darndest things. And Industry he said, ‘Maybe you can graduate from the School Partners of Mines. Let’s scrounge together your transcripts,’” Support New Slama remembers. Earned Design For credit for his medical school courses satisfied all but one Manufacturing hour that stood between Slama and a bachelor’s Curriculum degree from Mines.

So nearly five decades later, Longtime industry Slama re-enrolled, this partners Cargill, Nucor, time as a senior in the new and Caterpillar have come applied biological sciences together to help develop the program. Department Design for Manufacturing head Richard Sinden, hands-on curriculum. PhD, helped him develop a thesis research project. As a Oculus Rift Offers a Last academic year, seven student in an independent students received special study class, Slama spent New Artistic Medium: training and $1,500 most of his time back company stipends for their on campus last fall in Virtual Reality work as mentors to other Devereaux Library and students in the machine finally walked across the laboratory in the mechanical stage to receive his diploma Over a career spanning four decades, Arthur Amiotte engineering department. in December 2015. debuted his paintings at the National Museum of Natural With their specialized History and served on the Presidential Advisory Council for training from industry “I think students at Tech the Performing Arts. Now, one of the most influential Lakota partners, the mentors guide today are in a great place artists of the past century was saying farewell with a final other students through their to get ready to go into exhibit at the Dahl Arts Center. Two students from Mines medicine,” Slama says. “But would preserve the moment forever. projects. the basic things are still true. You have to care about From a technical communications course, computer science “We created the mentor people, and you have to majors Alex Nienhueser (CSc 16) and MacKenzie Smith scholars program as a listen to people.” (CSc 16) transformed an idea into virtual reality, creating way to help students a gallery of the retrospective exhibit with an Oculus Rift and the department What’s next for the 66-year- headset. while connecting future old Slama? Some things are employees with our a given. “I look forward to The prototype’s success propelled the senior design project industry partners,” says a time when, even though past semester’s end. Currently, the Rapid City Arts Council Aaron Lalley, mechanical I will be less active in (RCAC) and humanities professor King Adkins, PhD, are engineering instructor medicine, I can do some applying for grants to scale the venture and allow more users and lab coordinator. “The volunteer work in a third- to experience a gallery showing from anywhere in the world. world country or a short- scholarship approach for the term medical mission,” “Any time the arts and sciences, including technology, mentors recognizes student Slama says. “I really like to engineering, and math, come together, it benefits the achievement as well as work with my hands, and communities they co-exist in,” says the RCAC’s Executive compensating them for their the part about surgery that Director Pepper Massey. time.” is gratifying is that I am solving a problem.”

Summer 2016 17 1818 TheThe HardrockHardrock FOMENTO SCHOLAR PROGRAM BRINGS INTERNATIONAL TALENT TO MINES

Trading life in the coastal belt of southwestern Goa for a growing group of Fomento Scholars from India enrolled maze of metal and glass in Tokyo, Ishaan Shetye traveled at Mines, and collectively the students’ credentials are over 4,000 miles as a student delegate of the government of nothing short of amazing. India to Japan—in the eighth grade. Though designed as a cultural exchange program, for Shetye, the real treasures of The Fomento Scholar Program was begun three years ago his visit lay in his eye-opening exposure to science touring by alumnus Auduth Timblo (EE 71), scion of his family’s pollution control centers and Toyota and Mitsubishi Fomento Group in Goa, India, who had been encouraged factories. decades earlier to pursue an engineering degree by family friend Krishnakant Vernenkar (MS MetE 64). Goa has The moment was pivotal, sparking a passion that led him etched its name on the mineral map of the world, with to Poland less than six months later as a student delegate markets in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. yet again, where he studied the life and work of Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. Timblo was back on campus to visit his alma mater in 2012, and the time felt ripe to build another legacy. As Now an electrical engineering sophomore at South Dakota part of the Fomento Group’s educational mission, Timblo Mines, Shetye’s accomplishments before graduating from decided that each year he would select four to six aspiring high school are staggering on their own. But he’s part of a Goan engineers to receive a need-based aid to Mines.

SummerSummer 20162016 1919 Selected through a competitive process, the scholars come he hopes to apply to alternative energy sources in future from India’s top tier and are chosen from over 200 applicants. research. To better harness energy, Shetye wants to combine energy generation, storage, and distribution into one “In India, we have this extremely prestigious engineering dynamic feedback loop. entrance examination to some of the public universities. About 1.4 million take the exam every year, and only 10,000 His interest stems from an upbringing in a country of 1 students are selected, so it’s like 140 students competing for billion people, where engineering projects must be cost- just one seat. Some of the scholars who have made it into the effective, optimized, and scalable to meet population Fomento Scholar Program at Mines could have also made demands plagued by insufficient power supply. this top 10,000 and then chose to come here. That speaks a lot about the university,” Shetye says. The country is ripe for renewable energy development. India is the fifth-largest electricity generator globally. Yet of the Out of the nine Fomento scholars at Mines, six had 4.0 world’s 1.3 billion people who live without GPAs in the spring semester and have earned internships power, a quarter from Caterpillar to Sencore. Five new scholars will reside in rural arrive as freshmen in the India. Millions fall. more live with an unreliable The power grid program that sent 600 aims to million into provide blackout Goa with in 2012, its next and the generation government of leaders, wants to which Timblo supply anticipates twenty- will be the four-hour most rewarding power to part. “Fomento villages Scholars will by 2022. bring a rich experience from Active on campus, Rapid City to the memory etched most sharply in Goa, where they Shetye's mind remains his first. Trekking across campus, he have enjoyed academics with a stopped to ask for directions and was personally escorted to flavor of adventure and fun,” Timblo says. his class by the department head. Shetye was stunned.

Like a tree growing from its roots up, there is an expectation “It was incredible. I don’t think any department head would that all scholar recipients will give back. Shetye himself hopes help a new student find a room at a larger university and to do so by teaching at India’s public universities. nowhere in India, because there are so many students. And that was after Kevin and Heather Fannin of the International This summer, Shetye, who came in with twenty-one credits Students Inc. welcomed me in person at the airport.” and five languages, including Sanskrit, the world’s oldest, is continuing a departmental research assistantship sponsored He says gestures like that make Mines a second home to this by the US Air Force. He develops sensors for military-smart growing family of Fomento Scholars, who will for the first shelters that activate everything from automatic lights to time this fall welcome two women into their fold. intruder detection.

The project piqued his interest in control systems, which

20 The Hardrock INNOVATION Spirit of Innovation

Unique Electric Paramotor Just the Beginning of Hillard Brothers’ ‘Crazy Goals’

John and Phillip Hillard; photo courtesy of Elevated Lab, LLC Before they were old enough to even think about enrolling chase in life. So he took several years off from his educational at the School of Mines, Rapid City brothers Phillip and pursuits to work in the North Dakota oil fields, paying down John Hillard filled their bedrooms and family garage with student debt before returning to Rapid City and Mines. hundreds of airplanes and other types of remote-controlled vehicles they’d built from scratch. That’s about the time his younger brother John enrolled.

“Our rooms were trashed. Our garage was trashed, in the Builders by nature and inspired by their former Navy best way, of course. Our dad was nice enough to let us use his helicopter pilot father, David Hillard, the two embarked tools,” remembers John, a 20-year-old sophomore. on their electric paramotor. Mines supported the brothers with laboratory space, tools, and technical advice from both Now mechanical engineering students at Mines, the brothers the mechanical and electrical engineering departments. The have built a unique electric paramotor, an energy-saving motor mounts, electrical component mounts, and plenty alternative to the gas-powered paramotor they purchased of other parts were all machined by John in the machine several years ago. Without the glider’s parachute-like wings shop on campus. The belt drive cover and throttle were all attached, the contraption looks something like futuristic 3D printed in house, as well. John and Phillip also gained jetpack depictions from the 1960s. valuable experience working with international suppliers and personally paid for other components. Paramotoring is considered a sport alongside paragliding and hang gliding. With the machine strapped onto Their paramotor was built at a third of the price your back, the thrust can propel you hundreds offered by the biggest competitor, and the Hillards of feet into the air. The flier steers the wing with are now working with the university’s entrepreneurs- hand-held controls. in-residence program to market their machine.

“We’ve been building RCs (remote-controlled Eventually, they plan to start their own aviation vehicles) for as long as I can remember, and of company, building and designing ultralight aircraft. course, the next thing is you want to be the one flying them,” says senior Phillip, 28, who was on Innovators and adventurers at heart, “we’re preparing his way to becoming a professional pilot when to launch a pretty crazy future. We’ve got some he realized it wasn’t quite the path he wanted to pretty crazy goals,” John says.

Summer 2016 21 22 The Hardrock Chasing DisasterMines Alumnus is Combating Landslide Devastation on Guatemala’s Slopes

A country oft-stricken by natural disasters, Guatemala is ticket. While he is one of over 1,900 US Fulbright Scholars second only to Haiti in landslide-related fatalities in the past who will address critical challenges abroad, he is the only decade. The problem looms especially large in Guatemala one to have made the 2,400-mile trek back from the heart of City. Beset by poverty amid a population boom, crowded Central America to Austin, Texas, on a 10-speed bike custom conditions are forcing people to settle in surrounding built by him and a Guatemalan friend. communities on dangerously steep slopes—with devastating consequences. Averaging sixty miles and one flat tire a day, he made the trip in six weeks, crossing Guatemala’s deserts and mountains, On October 1, 2015, a landslide ripped through El Cambray camping at 1,200 feet on frigid nights, before passing into II, a Guatemala City suburb, engulfing homes and burying Mexico. families alive. The death toll would rise to nearly 300 with dozens missing to this day, lost under 120,000 tons of earth. LaPorte’s journey had him cruising the coastline on a narrow cliffside road that wound through colonial mountain towns Despite the frequency of such fatal landslides, research on like Zacatecas, where locals held a parade in celebration of Guatemalan disasters is among the lowest in the region, Mexican Independence Day. While there, he even hiked to a compounded by the lack of geologists and geological sacred lake nestled in a nearby volcano’s caldera. engineers to monitor landslides during the rainy season. Supportive and adventurous themselves, his family members In Guatemala City, Mines graduate David LaPorte (GeolE are accustomed to his long-distance journeys by bike. While 15) will make his home for a year beginning January 2017. attending Mines, he rode from South Dakota to Tennessee: Funded by a Fulbright Scholarship, the current Colorado 1,800 miles, eighty miles a day. This time around, he took School of Mines graduate student will develop cost-effective minimal supplies, including a bivy, or lightweight, waterproof ways for residents of at-risk communities to monitor the shelter, sleeping bag, pad, and liner, air pump and lock, bike movement of the large landslides on which they live. repair kit, basic hygiene items, pocket knife, water bottle and water treatment tablets, a map, sunscreen, and one change of LaPorte is the first Mines student to earn a Fulbright. clothes and socks.

Working alongside CONRED, Guatemala’s government Though an economical way to travel, it was ultimately a love agency that assesses disaster risk, LaPorte will help residents of adventure that prompted LaPorte to journey on bicycle, collect rainfall data, monitor slope movement, and watch almost at one with the earth he will soon be studying. for the precursor signs to develop early alert systems for potentially catastrophic events. “I love traveling simply and especially by land. Hitchhiking and tour cycling, to me, are the greatest ways because you LaPorte hopes to better connect residents with CONRED get to see everything along the way, little by little. People while developing a system to detect accelerations in ground are so hospitable. I’ll probably bike or hitchhike down just movement from critical rainfall levels before a large failure. to see it again,” he says, before relocating to combat the To scope out the terrain before the project commenced, devastating failures of densely populated slopes and helping LaPorte flew to Guatemala City this spring—on a one-way an underserved people achieve a higher quality of life.

SummerWinter 2016 23 24 The Hardrock HERE TO SERVE

Truman Scholar Vaughn Vargas Finds Personal Strength to Overcome Odds

Vaughn Vargas dreams big. Despite a series of personal Rapid City Police Department Chief Karl Jegeris last year challenges, Vargas has been forced to dig deep to turn those appointed Vargas as cultural advisory coordinator at a time dreams into reality. when tension in the city’s Native American community was high, and Vargas is integrating his police duties with Vargas was recently awarded the prestigious Truman his engineering studies. His senior design project will use Scholarship, one of fifty-four in the nation. He was concepts in organizational behavior and culture learned previously named a national Udall Scholar and one of throughout his industrial engineering studies to increase the the National Center for American Indian Enterprise number of Native American police officers. Development’s “40 Under 40.” To gather information for his project, Vargas has been “Vaughn is thoughtful and caring, but driven and motivated, meeting with Native American youth about their interests more so than any other person I’ve known,” says industrial and with parents about their concerns. He hopes the engineering professor Carter Kerk, PhD, whom Vargas has outcome will eventually lead to a law enforcement team more described as the father figure he never had. reflective of Rapid City’s demographics.

An enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Preserving the Native American culture for generations to Vargas grew up in Rapid City and is a senior majoring in come is a passion for Vargas. industrial engineering. He started his college career at Black Hills State University in 2009 but withdrew after a traumatic He spent the summer bringing Lakota Star constellation death in his family. Determined to continue his college stories to life with animation software funded by the South education, Vargas later enrolled at Oglala Lakota College in Dakota Space Grant Consortium. In June he gave a TEDx the fall of 2011 and transferred to the School of Mines in the presentation on how STEM can impact Native American fall of 2013. culture. He has also conducted research in security printing and developing QR codes to help prove the authenticity of “Vaughn is an exceptional young man,” says Mines President Native American artifacts. Heather Wilson. “The best students at Mines can compete for scholarships like the Truman with the best students from “I want to give our younger Native American students a way anywhere. Vaughn is our first Truman scholar, and we’re very to preserve our culture while introducing them to science proud of him.” and math,” he says.

Vargas has learned to never put limitations on what he can Vargas will graduate in December with his bachelor’s degree do and to take advantage of opportunities to be innovative. and hopes to pursue an internship with the Bureau of Indian “The top gets higher for any motivated person,” says Vargas, Affairs in Washington, DC, before putting his Truman who will receive a $30,000 award for graduate education as Scholarship to use at law school. These experiences will help recipient of the Congressional Truman scholarship. him build a career in urban development serving South Dakota. With the guidance of industrial engineering associate professor Dean Jensen, PhD, Vargas is finding ways to apply “I’m a person for the people. I’m here to serve.” engineering concepts to the justice system.

Summer 2016 25 ALUMNI NETWORK Larry Simonson New Mines Takes Reins at Alumni App Keeps Alumni Association You Connected

Larry Simonson (EE 69) has been named the new executive director of the Alumni Association, becoming just the fifth person to lead the organization since its founding in 1934 to foster and develop continued interest and support of Mines alumni and friends.

The Roslyn, South Dakota, native has dedicated his life’s work to the university, earning bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from Mines in 1969, 1971, and 1974.

Simonson briefly left Mines after completing his doctoral studies to work at Texas Instruments for two years but returned as a professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering in 1976. He was a member of the faculty for thirty-two years, and spent four of those years as the department chair.

In 2008, Simonson transitioned to a full-time development position with the SD Mines Foundation, allowing him to The South Dakota Mines Alumni Association has a new app further develop contacts while attending campus activities that allows devoted Hardrocker alums to stay connected to and visiting former students. He worked in development their alma mater while on the go. Download the SD Mines until taking over as alumni executive director on April 1. app from Android and Apple stores to: In his new role, Simonson will focus on continued collaboration with alumni to increase engagement by • Search for your classmates developing alumni chapters across the country. These chapters • Keep up to date on events in your area could grow the university’s presence at career fairs, help alumni network, and create support groups for students and • Follow campus happenings their families. Strengthen your SD Mines connections. “We need to work on activities that will provide added value for the university. We are all working toward a goal of supporting the students at Mines. We must never forget that,” says Simonson.

26 The Hardrock CLASS NOTES

Carl Buttemeier (EE 59) Melvin Glerup (GeolE 58) Rodney Iwan (EE 56) notes that 1940s is retired but staying busy moved to Arizona in 2015 and his wife succumbed to small cell with choir, taking care of his is enjoying the sunshine. lung cancer on September 5, Mitch Liss (ChE 47) remembers wife, Sylvia, and enjoying 2015. They enjoyed a good Jack Goth (MetE 50) continues that for his first job he drove grandchildren. Ahalyssa, seventy-six years together. It to enjoy retirement. He had to New York City in a Model twenty, had the highest score was only with her help that he his three sons join him at the A Ford, where he got a job in a chemistry test of 165 was able to attend SD Mines reunion last July. He had a great with Aramco in Saudi Arabia students. Alexandra, twenty- and graduate. working on the 1,000 mile two, is a graduate of Gonzaga time including a hike up M pipeline. Then he built fertilizer University and is teaching first Hill. Ree is now using a walker Clark Kurtz (EE 59) and plants in India, Canada, and grade in Spokane, Washington. and wheel chair to get around Joan visited SD Mines with the United States. He’s now Both have or had full-ride their unit. They celebrated his brother Lynn Kurtz (Math retired at ninety-one. scholarships. their sixty-third anniversary 59) and his wife, Anne, when last December. they were in Rapid City for the Harlan Meyer (CE 44) William Cohan (MinE 55) is RCHS Class of 1955 sixtieth Joe Hansen (ME 54) received enjoys receiving copies of working on his last consulting reunion last September. They his MS ME from the University The Hardrock.He is amazed project and will be retiring are enjoying their two young of Washington in 1963. He by the accomplishments and this year after being active for granddaughters, Evelyn and was licensed as a professional successes of Mines graduates. sixty years. He served three Norah, who live nearby. The memorials keep him terms on Colorado’s Mined engineer in Washington state informed of friends who’ve Land Reclamation Board and in 1960. He is a veteran of John Mohr (EE 56) and Alice passed. His wife, Inez, has on the Mining, Energy, and the Rapid City Army 109th moved into a retirement facility been in a care institution for Geology Advisory Board to the Combat Engineers, and served on April 29, 2016. Their son is over nine years. He notes he is Governor of Colorado in the from 1950-1952. buying their house. They will in good health considering his again be playing badminton in 1990s. He also consulted in Harold Hanson (EE 53) has age (ninety-three). the Senior Olympics. Africa, Kazakhstan, and the been retired for thirty-one years Armand Sedgeley (CE 49) and Ukraine. He stays in touch with and is in good health. He has Charles Parks (EE 57) has been Anne don’t get around much Frank Tagliamonte (Geol 55) been widowed for four years. busy restoring 1930 Model anymore, but they still love by email. He and his wife live He enjoys the outdoors and is A Tudor doing a ground-up hearing from friends. in Grand Junction. an active camper with his trailer. restoration which means total John Garrison (CE 51) notes He also keeps busy with his disassembly then repair and MEMORIALS he and Jan are downsizing house, his church, and friends. painting, about a three-year job. by building a new home in Albeno Panerio (ChE 46) Allan Hins (MetE 59) has Jerry Popowski (EE 59) and Sebastian, Florida. engaged in a health club biking Laura, his wife, finally revisited Raymond N. Pengra (EE 43) Max Gassman (ME 56) is regimen to keep strong. He has Custer State Park after a six-year biked 2,550 miles in twenty-one absence due to their shoulder Richard P. Young (CE 48) retired after thirty years as a design engineer at the John months. He is hoping there is issues and three hip surgeries. Deere Product Engineering one more trip in store to the He stayed there summers and Center and twenty-five years Quetico canoe wilderness area weekends while attending SD 1950s employment with the Iowa this year with his two grandkids. Mines and vacationed with State University Department his family while and after Louis ‘Jim’ Buccholz (EE 50) Everett Holgate (ME 55) is of Mechanical Engineering. His working at Boeing in Seattle, notes that two years ago he sold still alive but feeling very old! Washington. the house he had built and lived BSME degree from SD Mines provided him with fifty-five years Vernon Holt (ME 51) notes a in for over sixty years. They Ronald Sanders (CE 57) of excellent employment. He few of the classes of 1950 and moved in with their daughter, became a published author stays busy with grandchildren 1951 are still traveling. Renee in Rye, Colorado. in 2015, “God In Imax—A activities, sports, and church Panorama of Divine History.” activities.

SummerWinter 2016 27 CLASS NOTES

Taylor Smith (CE 50) notes and fly together. Their oldest proposed Alumni/Foundation Karl Bartel (EE 68) notes that his wife, Katie Mae, passed grandson is a third generation center, etc. When he isn’t after twenty-one years, he has away December 5, 2015, after balloonist and is carrying on helping Mines, he likes to travel. retired from Polyphaser and a long struggle with cancer and the competitive activities. is now at Sonoma Scientific. Theodore Andrews congestive heart failure. They (CE 62) Stuart Ulfers Sam Begeman met in Abilene, Texas, in 1944 (EE 58) and and Louise will both reach (ME 64) notes while he was stationed at the Frances have moved to a senior’s ninety-three soon and will all is well in Kerrville, Texas. He Abilene Army Air Base during apartment and are adjusting to celebrate seventy-two years hopes to have another gathering WWII. They have lived in San the change. They recently saw of marriage. Theodore bowls of the handful of SD Mines Dave Strasser Bernadino, California, since his Shirley and (EE in a league, and Louise enjoys graduates in the surrounding graduation in 1950. 58). They enjoy good health, working with her embroidery area this year. He is planning but have cut down traveling. machine. a campus visit in the middle of Roy Strom (EE 53) notes that May to look at all the progress. Richard Warder Ronald Angerhofer after a year and a half of starts (ME 58) (ME 63) Larry Blair and stops, they are finally going is flunking retirement! He retired December 1, 1998, from (CE 61) is still to downsize. He and Peggy continues working with Kodak. His son, Timothy, is consulting about half time on signed a contract on their house engineering programs a high school math teacher flood control. He plays tennis and moved in the spring. preparing for re-accreditation in Amesbury, Massachusetts, and racquetball five times a or initial accreditation from graduating from Purdue with week. He is restoring a 1966 Ernest Sundstrom (ME ABET. Earl Hoskins (MinE a math degree. Todd received Corvair, and spends time fishing 58) and Esther are enjoying 56) will join him on two visits his degree in naval architecture and hunting in between. the Georgia climate and this spring and early summer. and marine engineering from Robert Bottge surrounding area of Athens. MIT. His son, Thomas, has a (GeolE 62) They were in Deadwood in June MEMORIALS degree in voice and music with a notes after twenty-six years of 2016 for his brother’s seventieth PhD in music. He is an assistant retirement he is still enjoying Tom Albert (GeolE 58) wedding anniversary. professor of voice and opera life; after three months, he is James V. Armstrong (Chem at Ithaca College. He has two still cancer free; after twenty-five Rex Teets (EE 59) notes his 53) grandsons, Gabriel and Xavier. years he is no longer doing taxes family is growing. He has for AARP-Tax-aid; and after a Edwin F. Atkinson (MinE 53) five grandkids and three great Pete Avotins (MetE 61) has just twenty-six year hiatus he has grandchildren. His family totals Farlow C. Davis (MinE 52) started playing duplicate bridge started sculpting again. He has twenty-two people. He and his Bill B. May (EE 57) again. He hopes to achieve life moved from stone to bronze. wife have been married for sixty- master status in a few years. Robert L. Nauman (GenE 58) Al Broz one years. (Phys 68) occasionally Marlin E. Olson (EE 59) Daniel Baldauf (CE 61) is consults for NASA and others. Jim Thompson(CE 57) can’t Grove A. Rathbun (MinE 52) retired. He and Lona moved His wife, Beverly, paints, believe he has been retired to Taylors, South Carolina, to travels, and much more. His since 2000. He and Connie Dale Schoenfield (ME 59) be with three of their children. daughter teaches pre-school sold their home in Des Moines John C. Stevenson (ME 56) They will celebrate their sixtieth children at Harvard. His son- after forty-five years and moved Wayne K. Wilcox (GenE 58) anniversary next year. in-law is a graduate student at to Florida to be closer to two of Harvard. They are almost done Glenn Barber (CE 60) and their sons and their youngest demolishing and renovating Ardie downsized and moved to grandchildren. Their daughter Westhills Retirement Village in their kitchen/dining room. and two eldest grandchildren 1960s Rapid City last summer. He is Carl Coad (Math 60) is getting are in Iowa and the other son recovering from back surgery and Doug Aldrich (ChE 62) notes ready to celebrate his fiftieth and granddaughter are in a broken leg and is hoping to be it has been a pleasure being anniversary. He and Inge took a Austin, Texas. Their Florida strongly involved with Mines’ back in circulation soon. sons are hot air balloon pilots trip to Hawaii to retrace where facility projects: Chemistry they honeymooned. and they sometimes crew renovation, new residence hall,

28 The Hardrock CLASS NOTES

David Coe (CE 60) reports Frank Hahn (CE 66) recently a tour of Sidney Harbour and youngest grandson, Eamon, enjoying retirement and living designed, built, and moved into Ayers Rock. While camping is now eighteen months old. in Nebraska. He and his wife a new home. They remain in he witnessed the Milky Way Eamon is the child of his son travel between the east and west Prescott, Arizona, after thirty Galaxy from horizon to horizon. Yousef and his wife, Sarah. coasts two to three months of years. He kept enough voting He also stopped by South Korea Bob Miesen the year. shares that they can’t fire to find the places near where (CE 61) enjoyed him from Hahn Surveying he was stationed in the Army. seeing many late fifties and James Crouch (MinE 68) really Group that he started in early sixties graduates at the Gary Keffeler enjoyed the Casper alumni Indianapolis, Indiana, forty (ME 68) is 2015 All School Reunion last dinner and meeting March 5. years ago. He just completed getting by as all mid seventy- summer. Go Hardrockers and year-olds do. Arthritis has 1960 Rough Riders! Lester Davis a three year commitment to (ME 67) is plagued him and his titanium enjoying retirement, sixteen fund the Engineers Make Great Richard Moen (MetE 62) Entrepreneurs Speaker Program shoulder, which is waiting for years now, and still keeping its cousins in his knees. notes life is good aside from a busy administering polygraph at SD Mines. few health challenges. His first Roy Kimbell ( examinations and traveling. Gary R. Hansen (Chem 62) ME 61) enjoyed two grandsons entered college They spend a month in Arizona is working full time and doing a wonderful thirty years at Pratt this year, opening up new during the winter. more creative work. Their and Whitney in West Palm opportunities. He and Mary Beach, Florida. He returned Jo both are fully retired now. Ernest Endes four sons, a medical doctor, (EE 65) to South Dakota after the loss Matthew; building contractor, Glenn Morgan enjoyed the five-year-reunion of his wife in 2006. He stays (ChE 69) has and especially the ‘golden’ Ben; Michael; and Jon work been retired since 2014 and has in the family business, GRH involved with twin airplanes graduation festivities where he and flying. been traveling with Patty. He saw people he had not seen in Precious Stones. They have five was president of the local Rotary fifty years! grandchildren. Eugene Krell (ME 66) is finally club. He has been busy with fully retired and in his third fundraisers to help the Valley Mike Fischbach Ron Jeitz (CE 69) and Jean (ME 64) year working as the volunteer Fire victims from September is enjoying retirement with continue to enjoy the rural Georgia lifestyle. He had a marketing committee chairman 2015. the grandchildren’s activities. for the T-Bone Walker Blues mini reunion with Steve Miller Paul Norman Six of the eight are local. Fest, June 3-4, 2016. (ChE 62) just He also keeps busy with (EE 69), Steve Stahly (Ex 69), returned from skiing in Zurs volunteer work and classes in and Carv Trudeau in Naples, Al Kurtenbach (EE 61) notes Austria with family. He stayed philosophy and theology at the Florida, in early February. life is good! in the same hotel as he did fifty- Kansas University extension in two years ago. Gary Johnson (Geol 63) Steve Lenards Overland Park. He loves hearing (EE 63) is retired presented two research papers Howard Noziska from Miners near and far. and enjoying living in Arizona. (CE 67) and on Perminn shark teeth Mary Ann have moved back to Gary Lower Warren Fisk (CE 65) still gets from Texas at conferences in (ME 69) has had South Dakota. They are living to commute five blocks to work Australia during late July to three new grandchildren, all in his grandparents’ home built each day. His boss signs his early September 2015. The boys, with two identical twins. in 1905 located seven miles west first was the International paycheck and calls him dad. Richard Lyke (EE 66) and Pat of Newell, South Dakota. They Symposium on Early/Lower He and Jan are loving condo life! are enjoying their retirement. have four grandchildren, one in Vertebrates in Melbourne; it They especially enjoy traveling. Portage, Michigan, and three Alan Freiberg (ME 68) retired was preceded by a trip to the He continues to work part-time in Carver, Minnesota. They are from being a consultant for Devonian-age Gogo Formation, as a consultant to AK Steel enjoying the milder winters and Petrohunt/PursueEnergy in a fossil reef comparable to the January 2012. He flies his Research and Innovation. dry air of South Dakota after Great Barrier Reef. After a airplane to Jackson, Mississippi, nearly fifty years in Minnesota. once or twice per year for vacation to New Zealand the Bashir Master (ME 67) notes retirement luncheons where second conference was held his family is growing. He and he visits with Herbert Hunt. in Alice Springs followed by Barbara are keeping active. His

SummerWinter 2016 29 CLASS NOTES

George O’Clock (EE 62) is still Milford Peterson (CE 61) business. They have twenty-six Ken Trompeter (ME 62) a graduate student in biomedical relates spring has sprung in aircraft. His daughter, Chelsea, notes all his brothers—Walter engineering at the University Central Texas. The garden is is in Los Angeles writing for Paulson (ME 62), Doug of Minnestoa. He completed being planted and asparagus Comedy Central. Heidi, his Aldrich (ChE 62), and Jim course work and earned his is being harvested. second daughter, works out of Damm—wish Arv Richter highest GPA ever. He is working her home in Ohio. Steven, his (Phys 62) a speedy recovery Bill Preston to get an electrotherapeutic (EE 67) is active fourth child, is a programmer from heart surgery. device developed and approved in county and state politics. in Cleveland. for the treatment of macular Illinois still celebrates President Dick Schlumpberger degeneration (an eighteen- Lincoln’s contribution to our (CE 65) year-effort); his second device country and the world. is enjoying his sixteenth year of retirement. He just returned functions better than the first. Jay Preszler (ME 65) held a from touring in Costa Rica for Loren Peters (ME 61) still special memorial service for his ten days. He still stays in touch practices law in San Antonio wife, Rita, on Saturday April with Shirley and Mike Doyle with no plans to retire as long 21, 2016. It was her wish to (ME 65). as his health continues. be remembered when spring time was in blossom. She Jim Sealey (ME 67) is now Laurel Peterson (CE 64) asked for spring blooms and a retired and loving life. They recently recertified as a volunteer lighthearted event full of joy love their home in the Colorado power equipment operator and laughter. mountains. Brian and Anita in Meteora, Greece for the Peoria Park District. Jeff Ransom Jim Smolik A twenty-inch chainsaw is his (Chem 69) has (MetE 63) and Brian Tucholke (Geol 68) and tool for removing trees that are six grandchildren now, three Bonnie are still in good health. Anita continue to take advantage blocking a trail or in danger of months to nine years. Congrats They are dividing time between of their retirement, enjoying Dr. Larry Simonson falling on a trail. to (EE residences in Washington grandchildren, pursuing 69), Mr. Director, from the and Arizona. He still has a hobbies, doing volunteer Robert Peterson (EE 61) went great class of 1969! consulting business. work, and traveling. Their on to work for Lockheed Aircraft Carol Reed (Geol 66) moved in John Steichen (MetE 68) notes most recent trip was to Greece, in Burbank. Then two years later, where they toured archeological he transferred to the Lockheed February from a split foyer to a his family is doing fine. He is ranch style home. She still works still busy running the pheasant sites and visited some of the Georgia Company where he was islands. As scientist emeritus doing stability analysis studies part time for the Minnilusa hunting lodge each fall. Pioneer Association at the at Woods Hole Oceanographic on the C141. One year later, Conrad Sterkel (MetE 60) Institution, he is still doing basic he went to school for aircraft Journey Museum in Rapid City. She is enjoying the Black Hills notes his first wife, Phyllis D. research and publishing papers, maintenance and pilot training Gramm-Sterkel, was the first but without the necessity of at Moody Bible Institute in after living thirty-five years in North Dakota. M Day queen in the history of raising research funding. Chicago where he earned his SD Mines; she passed away in A&P Mechanic license and Laurence Rohl (EE 66) had his 2007. He is remarried to Anita Gary Velder (CE 62) and Linda commercial pilot license. He right femur repaired and a bone and they are both retired with are the proud grandparents to served with Wycliffe Bible marrow transplant after seventy- homes in Yuma, Arizona, and nine grandchildren. Gary still Translators for forty-two years two years of perfect health. He Eagle, Colorado. holds several mining claims and flying. He retired two years ago has five children. Two of his does recreational gold panning Walter Sutherland and is presently working with sons are in the aviation business (GeolE from time to time. He helps Nepali/Bhutanese refugees in with him; Brad does all the 60) recently collaborated with out with farming. Charlotte. Their granddaughter, Carl Strande (GeolE 62) on a maintenance and Richard, a Dick Wheelock (EE 61) retired Gabrielle Martin, had a summer Cornell engineering graduate, consulting job in Anchorage, internship at SD Mines. Alaska. from Northrup in 1990 and has left the consulting business moved to Washington. He to take over the aviation

30 The Hardrock CLASS NOTES has enjoyed golfing, playing Kathleen Ammon (Math 70) and North Dakota and a trip Mary, graduated from Waubay cards, and skiing. He had a relates the “no snow” winters to the UK for their tenth High School in May. His son, stroke in 2009. He can’t do in Arizona are wonderful. Her anniversary. Greg, is in graduate school much anymore and is feeling third career, real estate, keeps and student teaching in Rapid Michael Bowlby his eighty-one years. He notes her busy and challenged along (MinE 76) City. His son, Ryan, is in his his cancer is in remission. with family and friends. sold his business, Mack Hills emergency room residency in Inc, a metal supplier, in January a Detroit suburb. They are Darwin Wika Scott Barber (ChE 63) and (ChE 71) recently 2015. He is now retired. expecting their first grandchild Kathleen just had their first opened Remote Control Alan Boyd (ChE 76) and from Marija, his daughter, in great grandchild in Texas, Hobbies Orlando in Orlando, mid-August. Gabrielle, his Avery Sanchez, born October Florida, with his son, Nicholas. Sandy, his wife, have retired to a 55+ community near Denton, daughter, is a sophomore at 28, 2015. The store sells and services all SDSU. His wife, Martha, types of high quality remote Texas, after a forty-year career. Their children live nearby with opened a women’s boutique, MEMORIALS control cars, boats, planes, Mary Lucy, in Webster, South helicopters, and drones. He also their three granddaughters. Bruce W. Apland (MetE 69) Dakota, last summer. He sends plays golf three days a week in Orson Burton (ChE 78) retired Donald G. Hollister (EE 67) his personal congratulations The Villages, Florida. on April 1, 2016, after almost to Larry Simonson (EE 69). Godfrey L. Loudner (Math 69) thirty-eight years with 3M. He Mike Bates (EE 70) and Sharon Gary Evensen (MinE 72) Robert M. Maggard (MS Phys is enjoying spending time at the had a great time at the 2015 retired from the Postal Service in 67) cabin and with grandchildren. Reunion. He also enjoyed October of 2014, and his wife Marshall A. Maudlin (ChE 66) fishing with Joe Vig (CE 71), Carlos Calderon (MinE 71) retired from the US Geological Bob White Dave Theodore Roghair(EE 61) (CE 72), is living in Arlington, Texas. Survey on December 31, 2014. Krull (Ex 70), Jim Brown He is semi-retired, hoping to LaVerne Goehring (EE 70) is (CE 70), and Les Thiel (ME do teaching or consulting. He enjoying retirement in Prior 67) for their annual fishing trip is not quite ready to be fully Lake, Minnesota. He lives 1970s in Canada. retired. They hope to travel alone, but gets to see his two Leonard Alberts (MinE 78) toward the Dakotas soon. sons and their families in the retired from his engineering Richard DeSomber (MetE Twin Cities and his other son career after thirty-four years. 78) retired after thirty-eight and two granddaughters in He still operates the family years in the mining industry, Grand Forks, North Dakota. farm. His oldest son, Brandon which involved over twelve He often plays in foosball Alberts (EMGT 14) received a years overseas. He is enjoying tournaments and enjoys guitar. master’s degree from SD Mines, family and hobbies. Harvey Hansen (CE 71) he and his family recently moved and Nettie, his wife, retired back to South Dakota and he John Dolan (GeolE 77) Alan Bergeron (EE 74) retired in 2010 and have been works for Anderson Industries. recently donated all of his after fourty-one and a half years touring the country in their His middle son, Michael, is geology, geological engineering, at Rockwell Collins. While RV volunteering for various a teacher at Langford School chemistry, and math textbooks there he held various positions Bible Camps, Colleges, and and shares coaching duties with to the “Tate Geological in engineering, program Children's Homes. They are Roy Pulfrey (CE 76). Nick, his Museum” at Casper College. management, and international enjoying retirement and plan to youngest son, graduated from sales; he was fortunate to have Ron Christensen (ChE 71) be in Rapid City this summer. Mines in May with a degree visited fifty-four countries. The and Kay are enjoying retirement in electrical engineering. and best part was meeting Elizabeth, Gordon Henderson (Math after a career in agricultural a couple of Hardrocker track his wife, in 2003. They married 73) notes his wife, Mary, of research. team records. He is working at in 2005. Since retiring, they fifty years died of cancer last a grain processing corporation. have squeezed in several trips Bob Erdmann (CE 74) notes October. including a drive across South his last daughter at home,

SummerWinter 2016 31 CLASS NOTES

Steven Hoffman(CE 71) has Company on January 15, Larry Pearson (ME 72) is Steven Roeber (ME 75) is glad cut back to working just one day 2016. His stepdaughter, Abigail enjoying the winter in Arizona. to hear Jim Crompton (MetE per week. He is in the process Salkowski (IE 15), is engaged While there, they have had the 77) has retired after over forty of figuring out what to do with to Jeff Wientjes (IE 15). opportunity to visit with Jeanne years in the steel industry. his extra time while he waits for and Gary Callahan (ME 70), Wayne Larsen Ed Schaefer his wife to retire in June 2017. (GeolE 76) notes Sharon and Tom Zeller (ME (EE 71) retired In the meantime, he is planning William Christopher Bahrij, 70), Sue and Jim Cameron from Intel in August 2013. In on many playdates with their grandson number three, tipped (ChE 71), Sandye and Lynn May, 2014, he sold his house four grandkids. the scales at ten pounds eleven Kading (CE 73), Diann and and moved into an independent ounces. He joins his cousins, Dave Habicht (EE 74), and living facility. He hasn't Jeff Hohle (GeolE 78) and his Archer (three and a half years Bonnie and Dave Berg (ME totally retired; he contracts wife, Johanna, are enjoying old) and Holden (one and a half 73). for KinderCare Education—a retirement and living in the years old) Larsen. In addition company with about 1,500 Black Hills. to the tree farm, Wayne has James Pesek (ChE74) recently centers nationwide caring for taken a full time position as retired for the second time and children from age six weeks to Robert Howe (EE 72) enjoyed operations manager for the Tea moved back to his hometown, twelve years. the reunion last July and seeing Area School District. Margaret Rapid City, with his wife, Carol. old friends and campus changes. Wes Schrooten (CE 76) retired continues as plan administrator Linda Pirtle (ChE 79) and He is enjoying retirement and for Retirement, LLC. at the end of 2015. He is looking keeping busy with family events. Shane have moved to the forward to more time on the Gerald Loomer (Phys 72) notes country; cows, bees, and a links and traveling. Allen Jones (EE 72) and his first grandchild, Montessa garden! It is tranquil, sitting on wife, Ellen, bought a condo Loomer, was born in October the back porch having morning in Naples, Florida. He became a 2014. He asks, how many coffee. Florida resident and is enjoying other Hardrockers have retired James Quinn (CE 73) retired the 0 percent state tax. He and to The Villages, Florida? He from Exxon Mobil after thirty Ellen play a lot of duplicate congratulates Larry Simonson years and returned to Rapid bridge in several regional and (EE 69) on becoming alumni City in 2008. He has been active national tournaments each year; director. with Mines as an Entrepreneur it is great brain exercise. He in Residence and mentoring still plays tennis and golf. He Doug Matthew (CE 77) is students for business plan returns to Iowa several times a happily retired since 2010 and competitions. year to see the four grandkids lives in beautiful Colorado. He and attend Hawkeye football spends his time fishing, honing Irshad Rana (MetE 70) Mark Scott (GeolE 72) has games. his guitar skills, traveling, and retired in January from Fluor seven grandchildren: Madeline riding motorcycles with Sheila Enterprises after forty-five years and Connor Scott; Porter, Davis, Sandra Kastner (MinE 78) in God’s country. in mining. His daughter, Aisha, and Harris Emerson; and Callum notes her son, Kyle, is a PhD lives in Dallas, Texas, and has and Colby McMurtrey. He made Daniel Merteley student at Montreal Institute for (EE 76) is her MS in accounting. His wife, it through the ups and downs Learning Algorithms Universiti enjoying his work at the large Shahida, is serving LLNL as of the oil industry and retired de Montrea, QC Canada. array radio astronomy site on the senior optical engineer. after forty-three years in January Her daughter, Courtney, is the high plains of west-central, Abbas, his son, is serving Baylor of 2015. He and his son, Eric, a production engineer for New Mexico. Medical in Houston, Texas, as bicycled with a tour group 3,700 OxyChem in Ingleside, Texas. Ken Nelson a surgeon. miles across the Northern US last Vic, her husband, retired from (GeolE 71) is selling farm equipment in Belle William Rieger (EE 79) retired summer, from the Pacific to the a management career in the Atlantic. The fifty-day tour also minerals industry. Fourche. He loves his work and from Boeing on June 1, 2015 has no desire to quit. He had after thirty-five years. He has passed through the Black Hills. William Keller (ME 71) a great time at the Triangle two great grandchildren. retired from Hills Materials Reunion Party.

32 The Hardrock CLASS NOTES

Gerry Suelflow(CE 78) retired Luanne Zoller (ChE 79) and Jeremy graduates in May and at the University of Minnesota from Northrop Grumman in Geri are enjoying their new will start his internship as an in 1989. He then spent three December 2012 after thirty-five home, a condo in the Pearl athletic trainer with the New years at the Australian National years of building airplanes, cars, District of Northwest Portland, England Patriots. Jordan has University and has spent the and satellites. He is enjoying in the core of downtown an internship at the Minnesota remainder of his career at retirement and learning to play breweries, restaurants, theaters, Zoo. He will graduate in NMSU. He has produced eight guitar. and beautiful parks. December with a degree in PhDs and seven of them are in zoology. astronomy. Dale Thomason(CE 71) is MEMORIALS enjoying retirement in North Randal Evans (EE 80) retired as Richard Howie (MetE 81) and Texas. All of his daughters live Dennis Deinert (ME 70) the Boeing Director of Advanced Wanda celebrate their daughter, within easy driving distance Ronald R. Oney (Math 72) Systems and Development after Erica’s (IE 16), graduation from which helps with seeing thirty-three years. He is living SD Mines. Douglas M. Turbak (ME 70) grandkids. He went to Texas in Enumclaw, Washington, in Jody Kelso in 1979 for a three-month job the general area of Seattle as a (MetE 80) has his assignment and has never left. small cattle farmer. R&D company called JR Kelso 1980s & Associates, LLC. Steven Thorson(EE 71) retired Steven Fischer (MinE 82) is Ken Koemmpel from DirecTV on his sixty-fifth Sandi (McColl) Arnold spending his fourteenth year in (ChE 83) is birthday. He and his lovely (Math 88) married Skip California. He is still traveling preparing to retire in January wife Ceci have been married Arnold on June 13, 2016 in around Southern California 2017 from the civil service for for forty-one years. Estes Park, Colorado. They building power plants. His latest the Navy after thirty-three years. live in Cheyenne, Wyoming. project takes him to the Valero He is looking forward to his Richard Twigg (MetE 70) is Sandi currently works for the Refinery in the Port of Long next phase of life. Two of his doing well and is mostly retired. University of Wyoming in the Beach. He and Grace enjoy their three children have completed Business is slow due to low oil Laramie County Extension travels to different parts of the college and are starting their prices. He and Joyce have nine Office teaching nutrition and world, most recently Denmark lives. He enjoys being a grandpa grandchildren. food safety. and the Philippines. They have to their first grandchild, Vera five grandchildren and will have Lynn Bach. Robert Von Der Ahe (ME 76) Hilary Brook (GeolE 81) a sixth in October. is still building airports around retired from Shell in November Todd May (ME 89) is proud the country. His current project 2015 after thirty-four-and-a- John Gasseling (ME 88) to note his son, Ethan, is in is over $500 million at LAX. half years. moved back to Rapid City in his first year at SD Mines and 1999. Prior to moving back he majoring in computer science. Leo Van Sambeek (MinE 72) Don Charron (EE 87) updates worked for Schlumberger in went to part-time employment that his wife, Kari, is from Rapid Michael Mueller (ME 85) Bakersfield as a field engineer. at the first of the year. He is still City and graduated from Stevens and Julie are enjoying the He has one patent and is trying ranching in Hermosa, South High School and Idaho State. His grandparent role. Tiara to get it on the market. Dakota, and helping to build son, Sam, graduated from Indiana Marcus (IE 11) gave them a a new Catholic church there. University and is now a second Mike Gentry (CSc 89) and Jean grandson, Levi, and Marisa a year law student at Marquette. His granddaughter, Brooklyn. He Jerry Wright (CE 71) is still on proudly note their daughter, middle daughter is in her second is now a project manager in the City Council for Rapid City, Sara, is in her first year at the year at Butler and his youngest is the construction department South Dakota. He is getting University of Louisville. a junior in high school. at Regional Health. ready to enjoy grandchildren Tom Harrison (Phys 84) is in Mark Rantapaa as his first great grandchild was Kim Dockter (ME 85) and his twenty-fourth year at New (GeolE 87) due in May of 2016. He still Becky are doing fine. They Mexico State University as the notes all is well in Elko, Nevada. serves as a Foundation trustee. are empty nesters with Jordan staff “Observatory Scientist.” He is entering his twenty-fifth He survived lymphoma in at NDSU and Jeremy in After attending SD Mines he year at Barrick and is currently 2014. graduate school at Syracuse. attained his PhD in astrophysics the manager of the open pit at Cortez Mine.

SummerWinter 20162016 33 CLASS NOTES

Lonny Stormo (EE 85) Bradley Lawrence (ME 90) Andrew Downs (EE 08) is meteorology classes at North finished a fascinating thirty took a new job as the electric leaving industry to go back to Platte Community College. years at Medtronic. He is now utility director for the City of school to pursue his PhD in They have a two-year-old leading an emerging diabetes Madison, South Dakota. It has electrical engineering at Iowa daughter, Madeline. medical device company, been a great move with a lot State University in Ames, Iowa, POPS! Diabetes Care. of opportunities. with the goal to teach at the university level. MEMORIALS Paul Oien (CE 99) started a new position with John Deere Kajda Downs (ChE 09) left Frederick E. Otte (CE 82) Power Systems in February Puget Sound Naval Shipyard 2016. His new position is after the birth of her and a continuous improvement Andrew Downs' (EE 08) engineer supporting turbo daughter, Mary Ann, in 2012. Adam Lungren (ME 08) and 1990s chargers for the 6090 and In November 2014, she began Ammanda welcomed their first Samer Al-Haj (CE 96) lives 4045 engines. Prior to this, he training to become a fertility baby boy, Brendan Archie with his wife and four children worked in the dealer technical care practitioner at Pope Lungren, on December 26, in Denver. They enjoy the assistance center. Paul VI Institute of Human 2015. beauty of Colorado. Reproduction and is now Jeff Richmond ( James Moisan Geol 97) is self-employed. (ME 07) Martin Drefs (ME 92) just celebrating twenty years of is excited about the Nick started a new job as director of marriage in 2016! Brian Drake (ChE 00) is Rogakis (CE 07) engagement e-commerce for Sabre Airline proud of the new addition, and looks forward to linking Marijane White (CEng Solutions and will be moving Charles Xavier Drake, in 2015. up with the Delta Sigma Phi 99) joined the Ontology to the Dallas area. crew in Denver this August. Development Group at the Linda Foster (GeolE 03) was Jeff Heikes(ChE 99) works Oregon Health and Science profiled in January 2016 in Kristin Molstad (EE 01) as vice president of project University Library in Portland, Xyltt (formerly Professional moved to Brookings, South management in POET’s Oregon, as an ontologist in Surveyor Magazine) as one Dakota, in August 2015. Sioux Falls corporate office, mid-February. She will be of “40 Under 40 Geospatial Her husband is teaching high Jeff has spent the last thirteen working on the SciENcv and Professionals” to watch in school math. She is teleworking years overseeing and leading Open Research Information 2016. with John Deere in the area of engineering, procurement and Framework (OpenRIF) engine control systems. Their Charles Hankins (CE 09) is a construction projects within projects, after spending four two daughters are in the third civil engineer within the water the company. years as a semantic modeler and first grades this year. and data scientist for Thetus division at Black & Veatch. Thomas Riley Mike Rahe (IE 93) retired Corporation in downtown His wife, Chandra, recently (ME 02) and from Snap-On Tools April 1, Portland. graduated from Northwestern his wife, Jean, welcomed their 2016, after over twenty years. Health Sciences University with second son, Cash Thomas He will remain in Burt, Iowa, MEMORIALS her doctorate in chiropractic. Riley, on July 12, 2015. His following retirement. His They welcomed their first big brother is Chance. hobbies include gardening, Marilyn J. Moore (Math 92) son, Dexter Daniel Hankins, Stephen Roe (Math 01) farm equipment restoration, in January 2016. They were James E. Mann III married the love his life, fishing, and travel. (ME 90) married in August 2014. Jennifer, on September 5, David A. Mattox Paul Larson (ME 93) notes he (CEng 95) Joanna (ATM 08) and Shawn 2015, at St Francis of Assisi and Amy are blessed with eight Jacobs (ATM 09) note Shawn Parish in Colorado Springs, children and one on the way. is a meteorologist for the Colorado. They live in Denver, They are thankful for God’s 2000s National Weather Service in with their black lab-coon dog favor and blessings. North Platte, Nebraska, while mix, Jasper, and long haired Joanna teaches math and dachshund, Samson.

34 The Hardrock CLASS NOTES

Erin (Chem 06) and Travis statistics from Colorado State Schmidt (MetE 09) are University on February 17, expecting their fourth child, 2016. He is in a two-year a baby boy. Travis is currently post doc research project as a pursuing his MBA and MSIE. statistician at Colorado State University. Jennifer Walz (CE 08, ACM Alumnus 09) and Trevor are expecting Amber Horsley (IS 14) is their first child mid-April. currently attending Texas Chiropractic College in Bob Miesen Henry Tanner (ChE 08) Houston, Texas. and his wife, Kayla, live in Casper, Wyoming. Hunter is Rachel Joseph (ME 13) and Honored with nine, Madeline is seven, and Travis Clark (ME 13) were Sydney is three. They spend married on October 3, 2015. Guy E. March most weekends fly fishing and Loryn Kyle exploring the great outdoors. (IE 11) and Lichty (ChE 11) have a son, Medal Wade Benjamin Lichty, born September 1, 2015. They took Wade to visit the SD Mines Robert (Bob) Miesen (CE campus, Dr. Carter Kerk, and 61) was honored as the Guy industrial engineering intern E. March Medal recipient at the 173rd commencement at Vishay Dale, Jennifer Zeise ceremony held May 7. (IE student). Kristen Yates (GeolE 05) and Formerly of Zell, South Dakota, Michelle Ozarowski Rob celebrated the arrival of (PhD Miesen was a four-year letterman their first little one, Elizabeth Geol/GeolE 14) moved to and co-captain for the Hardrocker Lynn, on December 12, 2015. Fort Collins, Colorado, in football team and earned a place She arrived in the evening at November 2015 and started on the All-Conference team. eight pounds five ounces and her own geological engineering Miesen was also a member of the nineteen inches long and with consulting firm. M Club, American Society of Civil Engineers, and Theta Tau a full head of blond hair. Stephen Smock (ME 13) fraternity. MEMORIALS proudly relates Gwendolen Victoria Smock was born Miesen has been a member of the Hardrock Club since the 1960s, Joseph Sharpe (GenSt 08) August 22, 2015. She was supporting athletic scholarships. seven pounds and two ounces He also served as Alumni and twenty inches long. Association president in 1987 2010s and 1988 and currently chairs the Relationship Committee. Jason Connot (MinE 15) married Kelli Adelman in He is retired in Houston, Texas, after a forty-two-year career in oil fields Ithaca, New York, on October worldwide but continues to serve 16, 2015. South Dakota Mines by assisting Melody Dodd (ACM 10) alumni area vice presidents. and Cody Alsaker (ACM He also recruits students for SD Mines at Houston’s 10) married March 14, 2015. private schools. Cody received his PhD in math

Summer 2016 35 AREA MEETINGS

1: Casper, Wyoming, March 5—Rick Wass (IS 96), John Dolan (MS Geol/ GeolE 77), Melisa and Jim (MinE 68) Crouch, Errol (CE 59) and Bev Miller, Ben (GeolE 06) and Melissa Hauser, Ardell Knudson, Cheri and Joe (GeolE 82) Corbett, Dave Berg (ME 73), Mark Opitz (CE 74), and 1 2 Bonnie Berg (photo by Beth Opitz)

2: In September 2015 a small contingent of the Class of 1968 embarked on a cruise up the East Coast and through the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Ports of call included Boston, Bar Harbor, Quebec and Montreal. Couples from left to right are Craig (EE 68) and Kris Nordby, Wayne (EE 68) and Jean Binfet, Dennis (EE 68) and Sandy Krause, Kathy and Jim (EE 68) Kotas, Bonnie and 3 Dick (CE 68) Storm. The cruise was a special tribute to the success of the Class of 1968 Endowed Scholarship.

3: St. Louis, Missouri, May 16— Front, L-R: Tim Ogdie (ChE 80), Susan (ChE 80) and Lydell (Phys/ EE 80) Frasch, Russ Roeber (ChE 70), and Arnie (Phys 54) and Gladys Mueller. Back, L-R: John Knie (MetE 99), Tim (ME 11) and Kayla Luchini, Kurt (ME 86) and Deborah Selzle, Pam Roeber, Matthew Schwarz (MetE 81), Marty Schamber (MinE 78), Kayla Dye (MetE 88), and John 4 Mohr (EE 56)

4: Knoxville, Tennessee, May 19— Front, L-R: Charlene Dubs (MetE 81), Bill (ME 73) and Jo Jones, and Jo and Glen (ChE 50) Madsen; Back, L-R: Seth Petra (Met E student), Jim Webster (EE 58), Joe Hansen (ME 54), Curt and Tricia (EE/CSc 98) Gomulinski, and Darla and Doug (MetE 69) Roeber 5 5: Charlotte, North Carolina, May 20—Diana and Bill (ME 82) McMillan, Lindell Sunde (ME 74), and Don (MinE 68) and Shelly Del Bosco

6: Washington DC, May 22—Lyle (former EE department head) and Dorothy Feisel, Karen Zapp (GeolE 79) and John Withers, and Bill Tucker (GeolE 56) 6

36 The Hardrock AREA MEETINGS

7: Washington DC, May 22—Bill Tucker (GeolE 56) with Kathy (ME 84) and Al (CE 81) Sehn

8: Indianapolis, Indiana, May 23— Seated: Bernie Biberdorf (EE 50); Standing, L-R: Rees Morgan (Phys 62), Mike Gentry (CSc 89), Dan 7 8 Daniels (ME 72), Jerry Bollinger (CE 11), and Wayne Baumberger (ME 96)

9: Moline, Illinois, May 24—Front, L-R: Prapa Black, Kathy Halter, Al Bergeron (EE 74), Carole Jost, and Joe Lauzon (Met E student); Back, L-R: Pat Ward (ME 78), Monty 9 10 Jost (ChE 76), Bryon Black (MetE 94), Bruce Halter (MetE 89), Liz Bergeron, Steve (ME 93) and Holly Rieck, Audra Hawkinson (ChE 89), and Dan Nielsen (ME 77)

10: Paige Schnetter, incoming freshman from Harrisburg High School, is presented a scholarship by Erik Engelmeyer (EE 10).

11: John Hewitt, an incoming 11 12 freshman from James E Taylor High School in Katy, Texas, is presented a scholarship by Lorraine Padden (EE 83).

12: Midland, Michigan, April 12— Alumni gather to hear campus updates from President Heather Wilson.

13: Mines Masters, Chandler, Arizona, April 9—Mark Lux (MinE 80), Bob Steever (CE 74), Roy Pulfrey (CE 76), and John Hull (MinE 77)

14: Mines Masters—Dan Carlson (ChE 77), Steve Newlin (CE 75), Mark Rezac (MetE 77), and Mike 13 14 Kahler

15: Mines Masters—Michelle Newlin, Katy Kahler, and Jeane Hull (CE 77) won with a group net score of 46.

16: Mines Masters—Megan Barnes (ME 06), John Loranger (EnvE 03), Joel Lueken (SD Mines Athletic 15 16 Director), and Tami Nelson (MetE 86)

Summer 2016 37 AREA MEETINGS

17: Front, L-R: Steve Newlin (CE 75), Mark Lux (MinE 80), John Hull (MinE 77), Michelle Newlin, Nancy Hull, Kileen Rezac, Jan Lux, Bernie Hoogestraat (GeolE 56), Jeane Hull (CE 77), Joel Kinkart, Carrie Pulfrey, James Pulfrey, and Bob Steever (CE 74); Middle, L-R: Hugh Boyle (CE 79), Hal Nelson (GenE 58), Ed Bearg (GenE 58), Jeff Zacher (Chem 83), Pam Zacher, Barbara Berg, Gary Kelley (CE 84), Bob Kelley (CE 58), Matt Kelley, Rick Kelley (CE 88), Tami Nelson (MetE 86), Mark Rezac (MetE 77), Dan Carlson (ChE 17 77), Deb Hoogestraat, Nate Brown, Ryan Larsen, and Shane Larsheild; Back, L-R: Ralph Wagner (CE 75), Larry Todd (MetE 78), Gary Vallon, Jim Gray, Roy Pulfrey (CE 76), Bob Burrill (MetE 76), John Loranger (EnvE 03), and Megan Barnes (ME 06). Note: not everyone in the middle and back rows are identified by name.

18: Norwegian Alumni gathering in 18 Colorado, L-R: Rolf Knutsen (EE 96), Andreas Gluck (EE 96), BA Askildsen (EE 96), and Atle Borsholm (EE 96)

19: Norfolk, Nebraska, April 13— Front, L-R: Lesley Hanson (IE 02), Kody Heller (CE 12), Brad Johnson (EE 92), Jordan Smith (MetE 13), Jerry Anderson (MetE 78), Jim Hill (MetE 81), and Kevin Kortje (ME 89); Back, L-R: Matt Hicks (MetE 13), Derek Nordby (MetE 12), Jeremy Pirner (ME 12), Brett Jackson (MetE 95), Terry Rasmussen (MetE 91), Karl Barfuss (IE 08), and Kevin Gray (MetE 11); Not pictured: Anthony Shearer (CE 00). 19

20: South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame Induction, April 9—L-R: President Heather Wilson, Ken Wrede (MinE 77), South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame Inductee Doug Schlepp (MetE 74), Joe Vig (CE 71), Steve Weiland (CE 76), Tom White (MetE 76), and Larry Simonson (EE 69)

21: Columbus, Ohio, April 12— Bonnie Berg, Conrad Fuchs (ME 20 21 59), and Dave Berg (ME 73)

38 The Hardrock AREA MEETINGS

22-1, 2: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 9—Alumni tour the Warhol Museum on a trip organized by Susan “Booty” Banks (GeolE 75).

23: Kansas City, Kansas, March 28— Spencer Ferguson (CE 14) organized the alumni gathering. 22-1 22-2 23 24: Norfolk, Nebraska, April 4— Twenty-seven mechanical engineering, metallurgical engineering, and industrial engineering students tour the Nucor Norfolk facilities. Faculty members accompanying the tour: Michael West, head of the Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Paula Jensen (IE 98), Aaron Lalley (ME 91), and Jon Kellar 24 (MetE 84). Alumni participating: Terry Rasmussen (MetE 91), Brian Ellefson (MetE 13), Jordan Larson (MetE 01), Dan Tiede (ME 01), Emilia Juhl-Simmons (MetE 11), Luke Wheeler (IE 10), Anthony Shearer (CE 00), Kevin Gray (MetE 11), and Karl Barfuss (IE 08)

25: Dogskin Lake, Manitoba, August 20, 2015—Les Thiel (ME 67), Joe Vig (CE 71), Bob White (CE 72), Dave Krull, Pete Rodman, Jim F. 25 Brown (CE 70), Jim Kullbom, and Mike Bates (EE 70) were among attendees on a Triangle fraternity brothers fishing trip.

26: Midland, Michigan, curling, February 27—L-R: Nathan Johnson, Tracy Johnson (ChE 97), Travis Hoon (ChE 12), Brandon Johnson (CSc 95), Katie Johnson, Daniel Hines (ChE 13), Shari and Tom (ChE 84) Workentine, Cody Marnach (ChE 14), Trudy (ChE 84) and Rich (ChE 82) Wells, and Evan Waddell (ChE 26 27 10)

27: SME Phoenix, Arizona, February 23—Gathering of college friends: Leo (MinE 72) and Deb Van Sambeek, Dave Berg (ME 73), Lynn Kading (CE 73), Gary Callahan (ME 70), Larry Pearson (ME 72), and Larry Todd (MetE 78)

28: Peoria, Illinois, April 14—Steve Bickett (ME 04) organized a gathering 28 of alumni at Caterpillar.

Summer 2016 39 AREA MEETINGS

29-1, 2, 3: Zero Year Reunion—The Alumni Association and Foundation welcome new graduates to the Alumni Association in an event attended by over 100 Hardrockers.

30: Jason Deitsch (ChE 09) and Staci Bogue-Buccholz (ChE 94) welcome 29-1 29-2 students to the spring career fair for ADM.

31: Caterpillar alumni recruit students at the spring career fair.

32: Rapid City, South Dakota, January 11—SD Mines alumni and former professors watch the National Collegiate Football Championship Game. L-R: Karen Hagelstein, Paul 29-3 Gnirk (MinE 59), Larry Simonson (EE 69), and Terry Mudder (Chem 74)

33: Atlanta, Georgia, April 2—Alumni tour Delta Technical Operations. L-R: Diana and Bill (ME 82) McMillan, Dave (ME 73) and Bonnie Berg, Ron Jeitz (CE 69), Del (EE 66) and Cheryl 30 31 Gran, Cammi and Bill (IE 96) Jones, Lindsay Lipps (IE 04), and Jeff (ChE 02) and Jessica (ChE 03) Hartman. Children in the engine are Warner, Lawson, and Munch Jones.

34: The SD Mines University Choir and alumni traveled and performed through Europe, including in Konstanz, Germany, in May.

32 33 35: University Choir enjoying Europe—Back, L-R: Shon (former student) and Tori Anderson, Cody Cooper (ME student) and Alexander Schimbeno (EE student); Middle, L-R: Tami Nelson (MetE 86) and Paul Blasi (CSc 15); Front, L-R: Hannah Covey (CE Student), Caitlin Taggart (CSc/Math 16), and Emily Brossart (ChE Student)

34 35

40 The Hardrock Campus Improvements by the numbers 6,500,000 15 0 Number of major state 244 Number of minutes for New seats installed in the capital improvement main lecture hall of the industrial engineering students projects under way on Classroom Building. to get to the Quad from their campus this summer. new department location in the garden level of Devereaux Library. 1,100 Student mailboxes will be in place with the 2,432 Number of normal and tumor human tissue Surbeck mailroom renovation that adds 400 section slides to be stored in the new new boxes and triples the package storage research laboratory of Dr. David Gilley for area for a growing student body. breast cancer research. 501 E. Saint Joseph St. Rapid City, SD 57701

TheHardrocker Heritage Award is intended to attract additional highly Hardrocker qualified first-time, full-time nonresident freshmen and transfer students HERITAGE to South Dakota Mines who have at least one parent or legal guardian who earned a degree from SD Mines. Qualifying students will pay tuition AWARD and fees at the in-state rate.