At its happening, the Flood of ‘93 was one of the worst crises to have ever impacted the St. Louis area. There are too many alumni to name who pitched in during the time of need, alumni like Joseph LaGreek Jr., CSci’75, who operated a Ham radio to help keep communication lines open for sandbag…

Louis Smith, EE’66, president of AlliedSignal Inc., gave the commencement address to the graduating class in the spring 1993. The forerunner dared students to step up to leadership opportunities and accept the challenge. He recalled, when a young engineer for AlliedSignal, his friends were talking about their goals and, when asked, Smith said that he…

Richard K. Vitek, a 1958 chemistry graduate, began his career as a research chemist producing uranium from ore, before moving on to work as a scientist, director and startup CEO. His accomplishments include working with the U.S. Coast Guard to develop UV imaging instruments that analyze oil spills to identify the tankers responsible and develop…

Before retiring, civil engineering graduate John Mathes headed his own multidisciplinary engineering business that specialized in high-profile contamination projects. In the early 1990s, Mathes was a part of a team that formed Project 2000 to unite the civil engineering department and its alumni in their efforts to enhance the quality of the program. As a…

You might think that with the thousands of graduates Missouri S&T has produced over its 150-year history, at least a few would have held an executive office in the state. It didn’t happen until 2015, though, when Nicole Galloway was appointed as state auditor by the governor. Voters elected her to a four-year term in…

When Lelia Thompson Flagg, a 1960 graduate in civil engineering, arrived at Missouri S&T for the first time, there were no dorms for her to stay in. Instead, she stayed with a Black family south of campus while earning her degree. Flagg was the first Black woman to graduate from Missouri S&T and was one…

The Hasselmann Alumni House wouldn’t exist without the involvement of  Matt Coco, a 1966  civil engineering graduate – even the Kathleen and Matteo Coco Great Room is named partly in his honor. The Miner Alumni Association named the room in recognition of Coco’s extraordinary service on the largest project in association history. He spent more…

After earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from S&T in 1980, Mariana Rodriguez returned to her native Peru to become a leader in the field of higher education. She helped found two universities and two technical institutes in the country. She first founded Cibertec, a three-year technical degree institute. In 1994, Rodriguez and partners…