South Dakota Mines 186th commencement ceremony will
begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022, in the Fine Arts Theater at The
Monument in Rapid City. Those who wish to view the ceremony online can find information here.
The event includes a total of 135 graduates. This
includes one associate, 83 baccalaureates, 42 master’s, and nine doctoral
degrees. The names of all graduates and more detailed biographies for our
honored guests can be found in the commencement program.
Those fall 2022 graduates who cannot attend this
commencement due to recent severe weather are welcome to join the spring 2023
ceremony planned for Saturday, May 6.
This year’s senior class representative speaker is Emily
Nix. Nix came to South Dakota Mines after graduating from Roosevelt High School
in Sioux Falls.
Nix has been involved in various clubs and
activities while at South Dakota Mines. She served on the Student Association
Senate in various committees for two years, as a tri-chair of the Rocker Days
Committee, as recruitment chair of the Alpha Omega Epsilon professional
sorority and as a member of Beta Delta Mu, a newly established sorority. She
played several intramural sports and is on the Hardrocker Cheer team. She was a
residential advisor, a tutor at the Slide Rule math help center, and a part of
the campus move-in crew. She served as a commencement usher and a substitute
teacher for Rapid City Area Schools. She has worked at Cold Stone Creamery and
volunteered for Circle K and Study Dakota. After graduating with her Bachelor
of Science degree in mathematics, Nix plans to attend graduate school for
secondary education at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD.
Mines will award two honorary doctorates during the
ceremony to Randy Parcel and Pete Lein.
Randy Parcel
Randy Parcel graduated with honors from South Dakota
Mines in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in mining engineering. During his time
at Mines, he was a member of the debate team, tennis team, Singing Engineers,
and Delta Sigma Phi. He was student body president his senior year.
He received a Juris Doctorate from Northwestern
University in 1970 and spent 34 years in private law practice, representing U.S.
and Canadian clients in mining matters in Alaska, the western U.S., and South
America. He completed his career as vice president and general counsel of the
Denver-based precious metals royalty company Royal Gold, Inc., retiring in
2007. He then served as special counsel to two Alaska Native Corporations and worked
as a volunteer attorney for Disability Law Colorado, for which he received the
Luis D. Rovira award in 2015.
Throughout his career, he maintained close contact
with Mines, serving as a trustee and officer of the Foundation for 18 years and
as national co-chair of its Vision 2000 capital campaign. He also served on
search committees for the university president and Foundation executive
director. In 2002, he was awarded the Guy E. March Medal.
Parcel and his wife, Dr. Tracy Kovach, reside in
Westminster, Colo. They have a son and three grandchildren. He will also serve
as the commencement speaker.
Pete Lien
Rapid City local Pete Lien graduated from Arizona
State University in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
He worked in the oil and gas exploration and production industry in Colorado
and Wyoming for five years before joining his family’s Rapid City-based mining,
mineral processing, and ready-mix concrete business.
Pete Lien and Sons was founded in 1944, beginning
with a limestone quarry supporting the Rapid City Army Air Force Base (now
Ellsworth Air Force Base) and the new interstate highway system. Since then,
the company has expanded into iron ore, sand and gravel, lime, calcium
carbonate, and gypsum.
Lien currently serves as president and a board
member of Pete Lien and Sons as well as an Elevate Rapid City executive
committee member and a trustee of the United States Air Force Academy Falcon
Foundation. He previously served as the Rocky Mountain Chapter chairman of the
Young Presidents Organization and on the Bishop’s Advisory Board for the
Diocese of Rapid City. In 2004, he received the Environmental Steward of the
Year award from the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association.
Lien and his wife, Nancy, have three daughters and
seven grandchildren.
Members of the media are welcome to attend the
ceremony and interview graduates and university officials after the event.