School of Mines graduation set for Saturday

By Journal staff | Wednesday, December 17, 2008

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South Dakota School of Mines & Technology will hold its 158th commencement at 9 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 20, in the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center theater. More than 125 candidates will receive degrees.

Retired Rear Admiral William F. Pearson, a 1964 engineering graduate, will be the featured speaker. He has served as assistant surgeon general and chief engineer for the U.S. Public Health Service.

The school also will honor five distinguished alumni:

* Former U.S. Senator and Congressman James Abourezk, class of 1961, who helped build Minuteman missile silos in western South Dakota. Now a lawyer in Sioux Falls, he helped negotiations with the Iraqi government in 2002 to allow weapons inspectors.

* Randal W. Baker, a 1986 mining engineering graduate. Baker is president and chief executive officer of Case IH Agricultural Business, a division of Case New Holland, the No. 2 agriculture and construction equipment supplier worldwide. He oversees more than $5.1 billion in sales volume, an employee base of 7,500, production facilities in three continents and 2,800 distribution locations worldwide.

* John R. Collier, Ph.D., a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering with Florida State University/Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Engineering at Florida State University. He was an all-conference football player, president of the junior class, and a member of Delta Sigma Phi at the School of Mines.

* Dr. Monte S. Dirks, chairman of Black Hills Regional Eye Institute in Rapid City. Its eight practitioners cover all ophthalmic sub-specialties, provide state-of-the-art clinic care, advanced ophthalmic research and supply community ocular health education.

* Ronald W. Kiehn, a management consultant from Jackson, Wyo. He was president and general manager of EG&G Idaho and vice president of EG&G Inc., previously Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company. He worked earlier for Sinclair Coal Company and the Corps of Engineers.