South Dakota Mines 184th commencement
ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021, in the Fine Arts
Theater at The Monument in Rapid City.
South Dakota
Mines 184th commencement ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 18,
2021, in the Fine Arts Theater at The Monument in Rapid City. Those who wish to
view the ceremony online can register here
and join via Zoom.
The event includes a total of 152 graduates. This
includes one associate’s, 85 baccalaureate’s, 53 master’s and 13 doctoral
degrees. The names of all graduates and more detailed biographies for our
honored guests can be found in the commencement
program.
This year’s senior
class representative speaker is Shelby Guthrie. She graduated from T.F. Riggs High
School in Pierre, SD, in 2017 and majored in chemical engineering at Mines. Guthrie
has been involved in various clubs and activities during her time at Mines. She
served on the Student Association Senate as the governmental relations
committee chair and president in the 2020-21 academic year; as a tri-chair of
the Rocker Days Committee; and as treasurer of the Alpha Omega Epsilon
professional sorority. She is a member of the Tau Beta Pi and Order of Omega
honor societies. She has worked as an undergraduate research assistant at South
Dakota Mines and has completed two internships: one in surface water quality
engineering and one in environmental engineering. She will serve as a
legislative intern for the 2022 session in Pierre and plans to attend graduate
school.
Mines will award one honorary doctorate during the
ceremony to alumnus James Scull, who graduated in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in civil
engineering. He became a partner in a small local construction firm and started
Scull Construction seven years later. Today, Scull Construction is one of the
largest construction companies in South Dakota. It includes an office in
Dickinson, ND, works in a five-state region and employs over 300 people. The
success of Scull Construction led to the startup of many construction-related
businesses and a score of commercial and residential development ventures. The
company previously received the Rapid City Chamber of Commerce Granite Award. Scull was named the South Dakota Philanthropist of
the Year in 2010 and he is a Rapid City Chamber of Commerce George Award
winner. He has served as vice chairman and one of the founders of Rapid City
Collective Impact - One Heart Campus, founder and president of South Dakota
Youth Hunting Adventures, past president of the South Dakota Associated General
Contractors and an ongoing contributor to the Nature Conservancy, the Rocky
Mountain Elk Foundation, Pheasants Forever, the Safari Club International, the
Mule Deer Foundation and Black Hills Sportsmen. He was inducted into the South
Dakota Hall of Fame in 2019. He and his wife, Mary, have two children and six
grandchildren.
Mines will also recognize 10 distinguished alumni
award winners from both 2020 and 2021. These alumni have excelled in their
careers and exhibited excellence in giving back to their communities as leaders
in the fields of science and engineering. Read about each of their
accomplishments in detail in the commencement
program.
2020
Distinguished Alumni Award Winners:
- David Hammond, geological engineering, 1969
- Kurt Kost, mining engineering, 1978
- Todd Kenner, civil engineering, 1983
- Renita Mollman, civil engineering,1988
- John Henderson, civil engineering, 1994
2021 Distinguished Alumni Award Winners:
- Steve Vanderboom, civil engineering, 1974
- George “Rusty” Gray, metallurgical engineering, 1976
- William Betten, physics and electrical engineering, 1977
- Lisa Zacher, chemistry, 1985
- Timothy Klaus, chemical engineering, 1987
The media is welcome to attend the commencement
ceremony and individual interviews can be arranged following the event.