LEAD - One of the founding members of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority, Dave Bozied of Sioux Falls, died of cancer Wednesday, Oct. 7.

Bozied had served on the SDSTA Board since its creation in August 2004, most of the time as chairman.

"Dave's contribution to the Sanford Lab was huge," Executive Director Ron Wheeler said in a prepared statement.

Bozied, 60, was buried Monday in Sioux Falls.

Governor will appoint replacement

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds does not have a timetable for the selection of an person to replace Bozied on the board.

"You don't necessarily try to find a new Dave Bozied," Rounds said. "I will look for qualities that will help the lab get to the next levels. Its breadth and reach is considerably greater now."

Rounds said he would weigh the current and future needs of the Sanford Lab and appoint a person that would fit those needs and also develop good chemistry with the board.

The next board of directors meeting is 9 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 17, at the lab headquarters in Lead.

Artist the deal

Bozied was a key player in the sale of the state cement plant in 2001.

He was later brought in to work the negotiations between the state and Barrick Gold Corp, the owners of Homestake Mining Company, for the indemnification and transfer of the underground gold mine at Lead to the Science and Tecnology Authority for conversion to an underground science laboratory. "He loved to make a deal but he also understood a deal had to be good for all parties involved," Rounds said. Bozied's work not only secured state ownership of the mine, but he also helped negotiate changes to the agreement and helped assemble the initial work teams at the mine and procured the labor to start re-entry, Rounds said.

Bozied also was board chairman when Denny Sanford pledged millions of dollars to the state, buttressing a major application to the National Science Foundation. The NSF later made the Lead lab its top pick for the national Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory.

"Dave was a part of this project almost before it was a project," Sanford Lab operations safety officer Tom Regan said.

"He loved the fact that it wasn't easy to do. It was hard to do," Rounds said.

Bozied was president of Stan Houston Equipment Company; past president of B&B Concrete of Brookings and Flandreau and past president of Consolidated Ready Mix of Aberdeen, Sisseton, Redfield, Webster and Watertown. He was a member of the Board of Economic Development of the South Dakota Governors Office of Economic Development; Chairman of the South Dakota State Cement Plant Commission; Chairman of the Municipal Facilities Authority.

"He was a self-made man," Rounds said. "He had accumulated significant success in his own businesses. But you didn't know that in talking to him."

Rounds attended Bozied's funeral in Sioux Falls on Monday.