For members of the Missouri S&T Order of the Golden Shillelagh
March 2024
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OGS Weekend: Meet us in St. Louis!
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Meet us in St. Louis June 6-8 for OGS Weekend! From a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game (private stadium suite perks!) to a night on the wild side at the St. Louis Zoo, our activity options will include the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, Gateway Arch, National Blues Museum, golf at The Highlands, St. Charles Historic District and the Fabulous Fox Theatre. We’ll wrap up the weekend with our recognition dinner welcoming new members and honoring members moving into new claghns. Register online at giving.mst.edu/OGSWeekend by May 12. Questions? Contact Sarah Jones at jonessarah@mst.edu or 573-341-6359.
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St. Pat’s: Shamrocks and Shipwrecks
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The 116th Best Ever St. Pat’s Celebration kicks off in Rolla on Saturday, March 16, with a pre-parade breakfast from 9-10:30 a.m. at Hasselmann Alumni House. Breakfast is free and no registration is required, so come fuel up before the St. Pat’s Parade begins at 11 a.m.
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Nominate a Miner for our 2026 Alumni of Influence
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Missouri S&T is seeking nominations for our 2026 Alumni of Influence, the highest alumni honor bestowed by the university. Since the tradition began in 2011, S&T has honored 50 distinguished alumni. Now we’re preparing to recognize a new group of honorees. Fill out the online nomination form or forward nominations to Nancy Hatch, assistant vice chancellor for university advancement, at hatchn@mst.edu. Visit influence.mst.edu for a roster of past honorees.
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Campus updates: Celebrating our growth
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Missouri Protoplex Groundbreaking
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S&T celebrated Manufacturing Day this past October by breaking ground on the Missouri Protoplex, the 116,000-square-foot anchor of our new Manufacturing Technology and Innovation Campus located north of Interstate 44. A hub for product development, research and manufacturing innovation, the Missouri Protoplex will also house the Kummer Institute Center of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing. University of Missouri President Mun Y. Choi, UM Board of Curators Chair Robin Wenneker, S&T Chancellor Mo Dehghani and Kummer Institute Center for Advanced Manufacturing Director Richard Billo spoke at the groundbreaking.
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Innovation Lab Dedication
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The Innovation Lab, the first new building to realize the Kummer Institute’s vision for student innovation and entrepreneurship, will be dedicated at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 11. Located south of the Havener Center at the entrance to S&T’s new Arrival District, the 50,000-square-foot lab’s wide-open design encompasses maker spaces, modular classrooms and IDEA labs, as well as a coffee house, terrace garden and the university’s Student Success Center. Join us to celebrate this exceptional learning environment where possibility thinkers are solving for tomorrow.
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Breaking ground on a new era for applied research
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S&T will break ground on a new era for applied research at 8 a.m. Thursday, April 18, when a major expansion and renovation of the Engineering Research Lab begins. The 33,000-square-foot addition, along with extensive renovations to the existing structure, will create a state-of-the-art complex for applied research. Please join us as we break ground on a significant enhancement showcasing our research expertise.
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University Advancement leadership updates
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Tory Verkamp has been named vice chancellor for university advancement. She joined Missouri S&T in 2014 as a senior development officer and served as executive director of development, assistant vice chancellor and interim vice chancellor. Before joining S&T, she led fundraising efforts at Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation in Indianapolis. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia with a master’s degree in public affairs and bachelor’s degrees in journalism and Spanish.
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Lara Turek has been named assistant vice chancellor for university advancement. She previously served as executive director of development for the College of Engineering and Computing. Before joining S&T, she led fundraising efforts at STAGES St. Louis and the Center of Creative Arts and served as director of alumni relations at Webster University. She holds a master’s degree in management and leadership and a bachelor’s degree in dance performance, both from Webster University.
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Nancy Hatch has been named assistant vice chancellor for university advancement. Over two decades at S&T, she has held leadership positions including director and assistant director of the Miner Alumni Association, manager and events coordinator for Hasselmann Alumni House, and manager of alumni and constituent relations. She holds a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership from Drury University.
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Darlene Ramsay, MetE’84, has retired from Missouri S&T after 22 years of service in leadership positions including assistant vice chancellor of alumni relations and advancement services, executive director of the Miner Alumni Association and director of advancement services. She is a past president of the Miner Alumni Association and an OGS member.
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Kathleen and Bob Hurst, whose endowment will strengthen metallurgical engineering for generations to come.
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Supporting excellence and opportunity in metallurgical engineering
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Asked what advice he would offer to Missouri S&T students today, Lindell R. “Bob” Hurst, MetE’74, MS MetE’77, MS EMgt’84, MS EMch’87, has a ready answer: “Don’t obsess over your GPA. Your GPA will help you get your first job, and maybe your second, but it doesn’t matter after that. What matters is what you’ve accomplished — and your ability to adapt. You may think you’re preparing for a certain profession, but opportunities change.”
That’s the voice of experience speaking. As a metallurgical engineering student 50 years ago, Hurst expected to work in primary metals production. He started his career in the steel industry but soon changed direction.
After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in metallurgical engineering at Rolla, he worked briefly for Bethlehem Steel before joining a small chemical company that made corrosion inhibitors. His next move took him to Monsanto, where he spent over two decades in the chemical industry as a materials and corrosion engineer, while also completing two additional master’s degrees through S&T’s distance education program in St. Louis.
“It was my job to help keep the plants running,” says Hurst. “If we had an equipment problem, I worked with other staff to fix it as quickly as possible.”
When Monsanto spun off its chemical division in 1997, he went to work for the spinoff, Solutia. His career took a final turn when he joined Shell Oil Co. in oil refining and petrochemical production until his retirement in 2016. He continues to work part time as a consultant with Becht Engineering.
Looking back on his career, Hurst says what made the difference was his educational foundation. In gratitude for that Rolla grounding, he and his wife, Kathleen, a University of Missouri-Columbia journalism graduate, established an endowment to fund an S&T professorship in metallurgical engineering in 2017. They recently expanded the endowment’s scope to encompass the Lindell and Kathleen Hurst Graduate Student Fellowship in Metallurgical Engineering.
“My S&T degrees prepared me for a good career,” says Hurst. “I want to give others the advantage of an excellent engineering education.”
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June Marie Kummer died on Jan. 8, 2024, in St. Louis at age 93. She and her late husband, Fred S. Kummer, CE’55, who were founding members of
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OGS, donated $300 million to Missouri S&T in 2020, the largest single gift ever to a university in Missouri, to establish the Kummer Institute for Student Success, Research and Economic Development. A St. Louis native, June graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1951 with a degree in architecture. She and Fred married in 1953 and moved to Rolla, where he earned a degree in civil engineering. Together, they established a construction firm that became the Hospital Building and Equipment (HBE) Co. A leader in the Federated Garden Clubs of Missouri, June was honored for her service with the naming of the June Kummer Daylily. She also held leadership positions with the Missouri Botanical Garden and National Garden Club. June and Fred Kummer’s generosity continues to transform S&T through the founding of the Kummer College of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development, the launch of research centers focused on artificial intelligence, advance manufacturing and resource sustainability, and an ongoing investment in capital projects, undergraduate scholarships, doctoral fellowships, and STEM outreach for students of all ages.
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Howard Webster Eloe, a longtime director of development for Missouri S&T who was instrumental in founding OGS, died on Oct. 1, 2023, at age 98.
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Howard held development positions at Buena Vista College and MacMurray College before joining the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1973. He retired as executive director of development in 1990. Howard was born in Aurora, Neb., and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943, serving in World War II as a radar and operations officer. He attended DePauw University with the Naval V-12 unit and received his Navy commission from Notre Dame University Midshipman’s School in 1945. He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from DePauw in 1948. Three generations of the Eloe family gathered in Rolla in June 2022 when Howard’s son and daughter-in-law, Paul, MS Math’77, PhD Math’80, and Laurie Eloe, along with their son and daughter-in-law, Nathan, CSci’10, Phys’10, PhD CSci’15, and Wendy Eloe, Hist’10, were inducted into OGS. Howard and wife, JoAnn, became OGS members in 2000 after establishing the Paul W. Eloe Graduate Fellowship Fund at S&T in honor of their son. The endowment has continued to grow thanks to the generosity of the Eloe family.
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Copyright, Curators of the University of Missouri
1201 N. State St., Rolla, MO 65409
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