Take 60 sleep-deprived students — easy enough to find in Rolla — and add 450,000 strips of newsprint and 530,000 staples. What do you get? A 40.67-mile paper chain. In March 1997, S&T students spent nearly 24 hours in the Student Recreation Center constructing the chain in an effort to beat the previous record of 37.06 miles, according to The Guinness Book of World Records. “Breaking a Guinness record is something I’ve wanted to do since sixth grade,” says Patrick Painter, who organized the event during his sophomore year. Painter earned an engineering management degree in 1999 and an economics degree in 2003. He is now chief financial officer at Chicago-based  Industrial Flow Solutions. 

While the team did set a record, it was short-lived. The new 24-hour record for a team paper chain, set in 2005, is over 54 miles.