This rendering shows the SD Mines Alumni Conference Center
when completed.
RAPID CITY, S.D. (May 16, 2018) – The South
Dakota School of Mines & Technology has received a $3 million donation,
the largest gift in school history, from Larry and Linda Pearson for an Alumni and
Conference Center to be built adjacent to the campus. Construction will begin
immediately, with an expected completion date of Sept. 1, 2019.
“We are grateful for the immense generosity of Larry and
Linda Pearson,” said Joel Kincart, SDSM&T Foundation President. “This gift will
make a difference for generations to come. It provides a home base for vital
collaboration between alumni and students and provides a space where supporters
of SD Mines can take part in the positive impact this university has on the
community, state, nation and world.”
Construction of the Alumni and Conference Center, which will
be located on private property west of the Surbeck
Center, is funded entirely through private charitable donations.
The Alumni and Conference Center will house the university’s
Alumni Association on the ground floor
and the Foundation on the
upper floor. The center will include meeting and conference rooms and a
large event area easily accessible for university needs.
The public is invited to a groundbreaking ceremony and
naming announcement at 10 a.m. Friday, May 18, at the corner of E. Kansas City
Street and Birch Avenue, next to Rocker
Square.
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology President Jim
Rankin is scheduled to speak. Rankin is also a Mines alumnus (Electrical
Engineering 78). Other speakers include Joel Kincart, SD Mines Foundation president;
Todd Kenner, CEO of RESPEC, chair of the
SD Mines Foundation Board of Trustees and Mines alumnus (Civil Engineering 83);
Larry Simonson, professor emeritus of electrical engineering, Mines alumnus
(Electrical Engineering 69) and Alumni Association executive director; and Greg
Hintgen, Senior Account Executive
with Johnson Controls,
Alumni Association Board President and Mines alumnus (Electrical
Engineering 99).
WHAT: Groundbreaking
ceremony for the Alumni and Conference Center
WHERE: Birch/Kansas
City streets just west of the SD Mines Campus
WHEN: 10 a.m. Friday,
May 18, 2018