Category: Alumni

Commencement ceremonies took place at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 4, in the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena in the Student Development Complex. Here’s a look at Michigan Tech’s class of 2019.

1,194 – Total degrees awarded
835 – Bachelor’s degrees awarded
296 – Master’s degrees awarded
63 – Doctor of Philosophy degrees awarded

735 – College of Engineering graduates
295 – College of Sciences and Arts graduates
71 – School of Business and Economics graduates
51 – School of Technology graduates
42 – School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences graduates

About Spring Commencement 2019

“Kind of a blur, really, but walking across the stage and shaking hands with the University President (who I knew casually) was awesome.” -Jim A

“the best part was having No finals and being able to party and have fun all week while my undergrad roommates were studying their butts off.” -Griff C

From “April is for Fools”.

“I recall when one guy in Coed Hall went downstate for the weekend, we unscrewed the tiny little screws on all of his TDK cassette tapes and put the actual tape into differently labeled cases. So, when he returned and popped in a tape labeled “The Doors”, he might have gotten “The Smiths”, instead. He was furious and just started scribbling the real contents over the fake contents. This was 1983, I think.” -Carl C

“A few classics: covering every single thing in someone’s dorm room (while he’s away) in aluminum foil. Also, removing every single item, including furniture & fixtures, from someone’s dorm room while he was down at dinner. Witnessed both, as an innocent bystander, of course.” -Tom P

“It was November of 1971. We were juniors and decided not to make the long trip home for Thanksgiving in favor of a long weekend of jollity. One of the gang, Duane, had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and a collection of reels of music. His, and our, favorite was the Moody Blues “Days of Future Past.” To prank Duane we chipped in a bought a reel of blank tape and used it to spider-web his room on East Coed Hall 5th floor. We did a masterful job of it. Then we spun Days of Future Past onto the newly empty spool and suspended Duane’s now-empty labelled spool from the web to complete the prank. Duane entered his room later to discover and fell for the prank. We spilled the beans but he still stormed out only to return later that night and turned the prank on us by un-webbing the tape back onto a spool to use for more music. And we all helped. I know this is true because I am among the guilty party!”  Richard H.

“A friend of mine was a CS student, and she had written a program on punch cards that played solitaire. The playing cards were represented by a 52-card data deck located after the program deck and denoted by an ink stripe along one edge. She would wait in line at the card reader and when it was her turn she would cut the deck (isolating the data deck), shuffle those cards and return them to the rest of the deck, while remarking something like “Well maybe NOW it’ll run!” to the horror of the onlookers. Circa 1977.” -Todd J.

“It was 1971. We were Juniors in East Coed Hall 5th floor. Our freshman friend, whom we called “The Falcon” made a point each night to call his girlfriend in the Lower Peninsula. Dorm rooms in those years had a Touch-Tone wall phone and AT&T offered Nickle-a-minute long distance beginning 10 PM each night. That was so popular that it was difficult to get a dial tone between 10 and 11 PM. Being engineering students, we had already found a solution for annoying phone calls. A simple internal adjustment to the phone bell caused it to be silenced when set for minimum ringer volume and we used it as an on-off switch for incoming calls. We had snuck into The Falcon’s room and made sure his ringer was off. The plan was to call his number one minute before 10 PM. He would not hear the bell and when he picked up the phone for his call he would simply be answering our call. But we knew we couldn’t keep silent while he was frustratingly waiting for a dial tone. So we unscrewed the handset and removed the microphone from our phone. We could laugh as we listened to him hanging up, picking up again, cussing at the phone lines. It was great fun! We kept him going for 45 minutes until he managed to disconnect and pick up before we could re-dial.

The next day at supper I casually quoted one of his frustrations to spill the beans. He knew he’d been had and we all had a good laugh together. The Falcon knew he was truly one of the gang.” -Richard H.

“it was 1972, our gang’s senior year. We had an apartment in a big house across town at the bottom of 6th Street. The landlord lived below and there were three apartments on the second and third floor. The gang had gotten smaller over the four years and those remaining were together in those apartments. We helped with a junior hockey team sponsored by Crown Bakery with most of the team living in the neighborhood so we knew we’d have callers for Halloween. The guys across the hall had homemade Caramel Apples for the kids. That went over great. At the end of the evening there was one Caramel Apple left over. My buddies decided I merited the treat. But I knew them well. This could be a prank… I bit into the treat with care and found it overloaded with thick caramel. Not bad. The second bite proved my suspicions as I discovered the Caramel Tomato. I think it was I who laughed the hardest as I scrapped off the caramel to eat and discarded the tomato. Those were good days.”  -Richard H.

“My friends filled my dorm room in West Coed Hall (now McNair Hall) with newspaper, wall-to-wall & floor-to-ceiling while on was on a job interview one weekend. I was the RA and so I lived alone and left my keys with my friend to feed my Piranha. When I came back that Sunday I was followed to my room where I could barely open the door. We had tons of fun borrowing through the wadded up paper.

Later that night we had filled a dozen trash bags along with several cylindrical bags used by the trash compactor. When then took two trash bags and one cylindrical bag and staked it waist high on the 50-foot snowman, which was built for a snowman contest, and was in front of the frat house next to Wadsworth Hall. It remained there until mid morning. We also hung one in the courtyard of West Coed until the dorm Manager called me to have it removed.“ -Mark M.

“In the fall of 1973 when the Bogue Boys were first getting started, we lived in a house on Hubbell Street. When one of our roommates, Max, went home downstate for the weekend, we “borrowed” his car to use it in the Homecoming Hobo parade. Took the back seat out and placed it in the trunk and marked up the black car with white shoe polish. Of course we had to leave the car as it had been “reconditioned” it so Max could appreciate the handiwork when he returned.” Rick W.

From “What you Said in March”

“Never north of the Bridge until my parents brought me up from Detroit for my freshman year, 1966. Back then all the frosh came up a week before classes started for Orientation. I loved it! Five years later I left with a degree and a wife (one of the few coeds). I think the ratio was about 22:1 at that time. We’re still Yoopers!” -John B.

From the Alumni Network Facebook group, Jim A. posted “I’m taking my son on college visits and it reminds me of my first visit to Tech. What was your first visit like?”

“My parents were crazy enough to let me drive alone to MTU for a visit. Some guys from my HS were there and it was the weekend of the POR race. Needless to say I had a blast and fell in love with the area. My mom said when I got home she knew I was going to MTU”  -Annette K.

“Lots of great summer visits in junior high and high school to visit my sister who was at Tech. She graduated and I didn’t go back until a handful of year later for my move in weekend.”

-Michelle C.

“My parents took me up in January of my junior year, thinking it would deter me. Walking down college Ave all the statues were being built by all those boys in one place! I was in love!”

-Lisa C.

“Orientation 1975!! Weather was sunny and in the eighties!!” -Tom H.

“My first visit was when my mom dropped me off. I went to Tech sight unseen, solely on reputation.” -Cathi M.

“Easter weekend (1964?) and snow up to our knees!!!” -Stan S.

 “2 summers and Women in Engineering one summer. Didn’t have an official campus visit like the kids all do these days. I just knew after those summers that MTU was the place for me!”

-Dawn P.

“I went up with my Dad on a rainy fall weekend in ‘84. Back then, you could stay overnight in Wads. It was weird being the only person in this huge room in the basement. Someone came home around 2 am, got out the boom box. I remember opening the door and hollering for them to turn it down. We tried to go to a football game, but changed our minds because of the rain. Went to a hockey game instead, first one ever, and loved the game and the crowd! It was fabulous!”  -Ris B.

“Amazing! I fell in love with the slow pace of life… it gave me a place to take myself away from life to focus on learning! No rush hour… a place of absolute serenity… gods country! I miss it!” -Matthew D.

“I had planned to go to LSSU to follow my crush. My mom convinced me to check out Tech too. Funnily enough, our car broke down in Marquette and neither of us thought to go to check out NMU while we waited. Got to campus and I  said “what crush?” -Elizabeth L.

“I was on my way to visit University of Minnesota and my mom made us stop at Tech “just to see” and I never made it to U of M  it was sleeting and 30 in March!” -Ashley V.

“45* and sleeting in August. My brother and I still chose to go to Tech, but the friend that went with us thought it was absolutely miserable and we were crazy.” -Erin F

“Had lunch in McNair, and happened to be at a table right next to the girls volleyball team.  :-)” -Nathan S

“I went to the paintball field, and was hooked” -Mikel M.

“I went in the middle of summer and it was HOT and dry. Very unusual weather. But I fell in love with the place just the same.” -Jim A.

“St. Patrick’s Day week of 1979.  Three of us road tripped up from lower Michigan.   Four feet of snow pack on the ground and we hit several bars.  Everyone graduated!” -Mark S.

” Also a senior in high school, went in October. The fall colors were in full force. I remember like it was yesterday” -Scotty G.

“I was a senior in HS visiting my sister at Tech in DHH…” -Jean C.

“That’s when the snowball fight with DHH & Wads broke out across 41!!!🤣”

“I went to Open House in the fall of my junior high school for my first trip. It was a fairly warm fall day. Beautiful fall colors. I was from the Central UP, but the colors were more beautiful than anything I’d seen in the Central UP! I went back for a campus tour with some friends the next summer and it was over 90 degrees!” -Mary K.

“Visited my older sister who was attending there. Went to summer youth a couple years- loved it – and attended.”  -Lisa B.

“Didn’t do a visit, but had traveled many times to Ashland Wisconsin from northern Indiana growing up to visit relatives and knew I liked the north woods pace. I was accepted at Purdue in the cornfields, Madison in the City, and MTU in the woods. Since I was going into Forestry I thought it was a no brainer. Came up summer of 77 for orientation and I’m still here :-). Retired from MTU 3 years ago” -Bob G.

“Visited during Winter Carnival! My HS Chemistry teacher was a Tech alumnae and a UP native – her parents lived near Hancock. She had an MTU poster in the lab and recruited me for Biology (her major with a chemistry minor). She convinced me and another classmate to take one of buses chartered for Carnival from Detroit and we stayed at her parents. She still had connections with Blue Key so we had tix to hockey, the skits and enjoyed the statues and being introduced to broomball. Needless to say I and my classmate both went to Tech” -Deborah D.

All comments from our Michigan Tech Alumni Network on Facebook

“I almost threw this away recently since it is in such poor condition, but just could not do it. I got it soon after arriving in my first year. I think the shirts were sold at the Union or book store. I was pleased to be enrolled in ‘The Michigan College of Mining and Technology.’ The name was changed to Michigan Technological University soon after I graduated. It could still be called ‘Michigan Tech,’ however.”  –Brian K.

“I was part of the Dec. 2, 1985 snowbound students trying to make it to MTU through the storm. I had to wait it out in Marquette.”  –Don G.

“Being really intimidated going into a really bad job market in 05-09… the job market today gives graduates all the leverage… these companies should be eating out of your little hand! Be confident and make us Huskies that came before you proud! My MTU degree put me ahead of my counterparts and you have a lot to bargain with amongst companies!”  –Matthew D.

“It is fun and interesting to talk with new prospects. Most young people seem so much better prepared than I was at that age. Love the energy and the vibe.” –Michael D.

“I was there — section 207. Go, Huskies! Go, Red Wings!!” –Todd H.

“Standing outside the Admin building early in the frigid weather waiting to get in and sign up for interviews in 1981!! Well worth it in the end!!” –Jeff N.

This is Huskies helping Huskies! From Jonathan A., who received 18 replies. “Are there any folks that work in automotive casting processes? Would you know what simulation software is used in that industry and why? I’m writing a report for some grad school work and knew that a number of Tech grads probably work in this area.”

Cynthia H. posted this question and got 112 comments  …

“On the MTU Parent fb group, parents are concerned because their students are unhappy with the dorm food. What were some of your favorites from your MTU era? Also, what was awful?”

A sampling of responses…

“Fish bites were the epitome of disgusting dorm food. Tomato soup and grilled cheese were the best.” –Monica H.

“The ‘vat’ of peanut butter with the oil congealed on top (1980 Wads hall).” –Tina S.

“BLT day was the absolute BOMB. You can choose as much bacon as you desire.” –Brittany H.

“Loved the pasties & liver & onions were a fast gone item on the days they were served.” –Ellie C.

“We’d pile cheese sandwiches on top of the ceiling lights (hot, incandescents) in the Wadsworth elevator. What a smell! 😋” –Stan S. ’65 ’69

“Slimy hot dog day boiled in green water day.” –Jeff R.

“Beef tips were so bad (2008-2012) there was a students against beef tips Facebook group.” –Emma Z.

“They did not get better in 2013 😄” –Maggie S.

“Maybe not everything was amazing, but there was no lacking for options. I remember making my own paninis and frequenting the salad and pasta stations. Just wait till they graduate and have to cook for themselves.” –Amy D. Wads 07-08.

“Students complaining about food is a timeless tradition. When they move out into apartments, they BEG for dorm food. I’d always have an extra swipe or two and would bring a friend once or twice a week.” –Ward R.

“I didn’t eat the hot food in Wads ever. But the sandwich, salad, and stir fry/omelet area were fine. And the staff did great accommodating my food intolerances.” –Rachel S.

“Just had a mini reunion with friends from Tech and we were talking about the food in the dorms. The Egg McTech was the crowd favorite.  Alumni from circa 1990-1994.” –Roberta W.

“I appreciated the salad bar, but the free Nutella and pb toast with hot chocolate definitely contributed to my freshman 15.” –Taylor F.  

“I remember telling my mom how great the dorm food was (DHH 1980-81). She made it clear that she considered that news insulting which surprised me since I thought she’d be happy for me. I tend to be naturally optimistic and thought it was pretty cool that you could show up, take whatever you wanted, finish every meal with ice cream, eat with friends, and you didn’t even have to do any clean up. Honestly, I don’t remember thinking there was any problem with dorm food.” –Kathy H.

“My son is very happy with the food (guess that tells you how good a cook I am …or as the case might be…am NOT!). I was in Wadsworth 1980 – 1981. They had a suggestion box on the wall. I remember someone stuffed a “tuna surprise” in the suggestion box. Tuna surprise was basically a tuna fish sandwich but on a hot dog bun.” –Molly B.

“I don’t know, I just graduated last year and to be honest the food in McNair was really really good. High quality food, prepared well, and there were a great variety of options for any diet. I’ll admit though that the food is noticeably less quality in the other dining halls, especially Wads.” –Hal H.

“Keweenaw Bowl, tacos, homemade pizza all great. Whatever “Greek food” they tried to make (gyros) were completely awful.” –Brittany K.

“With proper installation, the Pizza we had in the 70s would double as a 10 year residential roof shingle. But…it was pizza and we always looked forward to it!! 😄😄” –Jim R.

“DHH’s greasy rotisserie hotdogs couldn’t hold a candle to Wads’ boiled doggies. Just like mom used to make…” –Matthew C.

When I was student cook in Co-Ed in early 70’s everything was Wonderful, 😄” –Randy S.

From Facebook:

“Funny thing we live in a small town in Wisconsin. I am shooting pool and just met a 2014 mechanical engineer grad from Mich Tech that is an engineer at Sea Grave, a local fire truck manufacturer.” -TS

“My husband and I were at the bear sanctuary in Minnesota last summer. A Husky was doing an internship there. She knew my son. Also met an alum who was in his 80s. Small world.” -DB-A

“You can find Huskies everywhere! Especially if you’re wearing MTU gear or sporting a decal on your vehicle. We were at a bar in the small town of Crivitz, WI where I grew up and we found a Husky!” -CD

“We are in Pound. We were visiting our Husky out in Washington state this summer for his internship. We ran into probably 10 alumni. Amazing.” -JM

“Always a favorite week at Tech. The sculptures look like they continue to be amazing” -Dawn F.

“One day in winter ’82-’83 I think. Not completely positive. Those details are are a little foggy. However, Jim’s food mart remained open that day, and I recall trekking over there with a sled and returning home with cases of survival essentials (of the liquid form)😂. We didn’t have fancy video games then, so we played euchre and poker and later on when we were really glowing we sledded down Agate Street from the top. Now that was a real thrill! Thankfully we had trustworthy spotters at the bottom waving us off if a car was coming down College Ave!” -Pete J.

“Back in 61–64 we closed once. The president looked out at Mt. Ripley and saw all the students over there skiing. ‘If they can make it to Mt Ripley they can make it to class! I’ll never close again.’” -David H.

“Sure did! Having Rosa Parks as the speaker at my graduation ceremony was one of many highlights of my time at MTU!” -Mary C.

“I was in my cap and gown. I think in the 4th row. I remember thinking at the time how petite she was. But yet, she had such a powerful presence.” Julie V.

“I always rode on my sorority’s dog sled. So much fun!” Tiffany M.

“White out so bad it was terrifying to try to cross 41. Would have probably been ‘81” -Mark C.

“ It was -35. My car was the only one that would start, so I had a car full of students from the apartments. We went to school. ’84 or ’85.” -Dan H.

“ Yes! Spring 1985, first day of spring term, I was at the Admin Building, changing some of my classes, signs everywhere that classes were canceled at noon. I went over to a friends house and NO ONE believed me! “Oh”, they said, “Tech never cancels”. So they went to class and I stayed in and watched TV!” -Sue G.

“When I was a Tech there was a story that the school was closed once and all the students took trays and went sledding.” -John H.

By Emily Riippa | University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections

Classes are back in full swing at Michigan Tech, and that means that students are hitting the books. Huskies can be spotted deep in concentration around lab equipment, state-of-the-art computers, well-decorated whiteboards, and, of course, library tables. Drive past the Van Pelt and Opie Library late at night, or walk through the first floor reading room in the afternoon, and you’ll find students meeting with friends and powering through problem sets with help from classmates. In recognition of the importance of the library to Tech students, the building closes completely only once a year, the night of Winter Carnival’s all-night snow statue competition. Though the library and its resources have been powering Huskies for decades, the space dedicated to the library and what it provides have seen significant changes. Let’s journey back into the Michigan Tech Archives to see the life of the library over more than a century.

The library of the Michigan Mining School began with a gift of 3,000 bound volumes coordinated by J. Sturgis, a member of the Houghton County Historical Society; materials owned by the school’s faculty apparently supplemented these holdings. As enrollment grew and the Michigan Mining School became a college, the library blossomed. In 1912, to help students and professors alike make best use of the burgeoning collection, the Michigan College of Mines helpfully produced a “Handbook of the Library” to inform students about available materials, special features, and etiquette for this hallowed ground. By this point, the college’s books and other publications resided in a “fire-proof structure” that also housed the MCM geological and mineralogical collection. College business and executive offices shared the space, as well. As the Academic Office Building, the old library continues to host office spaces for various departments to this day.

Those visiting the library were advised that the now “26,000 volumes, 14,000 pamphlets, and 1,450 maps” were “largely scientific and technical in character,” befitting the college’s curriculum. Future mining engineers could find “complete sets of all the important mining and engineering publications,” as well as “journals of scientific lines allied to mining engineering.” So patrons would be able to successfully navigate the two-winged brick building, the handbook included a useful sketch of the floorplan, showing the locations of books, newspapers, minerals, and the “modern equipment” of which library staff were proud. To clarify the availability of materials, the handbook explained that, while “the Library is intended for free reference use[,] the privilege of borrowing books for home use is accorded to all officers of instruction and to all registered students. This privilege is extended to all responsible persons who apply to the librarian for it.” Now, faculty and students are joined by all Michigan Tech staff members in enjoying the ability to check out books, and community members may also apply for courtesy cards allowing them the same opportunity.

A growing library with a diverse collection needed able workers to sustain it. In 1940, the Daily Mining Gazette published a profile of the Michigan College of Mining and Technology that explored its staff and the special collections in their charge. Librarian Madeleine Gibson, an alumna of Wellesley College and the University of Wisconsin who remained at Tech for 35 years, led the trio. Under her worked two library assistants, Florence McGee (who also served as a cataloger) and Lillian Combellack. The three women oversaw holdings that had grown to 39,000 “books and bound serials, and a collection of pamphlets on scientific and engineering subjects.” Gibson, McGee, and Combellack also cared for a depository of documents produced by the federal government and the Michigan state government. The Gazette noted that a special display case had been designated as housing for the “John M. Longyear Spitzbergen collection, consisting of books, magazine articles and pamphlets on Spitzbergen.” The eponymous Longyear, a lumber baron and former member of the university’s Board of Control, had established a coal mining company on the remote Norwegian island territory of Spitzbergen (also known as Spitsbergen), and materials pertaining to the company logically found a home at the MCMT. Students whose interests bent more to music than Norwegian mining could check out a set of musical books “donated by the Carnegie corporation of New York City.” Patrons could peruse the shelves during the extensive reading room hours held six days a week.

By the 1962-1963 academic year, the library building was bursting at the seams. Campus boasted over 2,700 students in more than twenty fields of study, and the library, built to accommodate a much smaller collection and student body, now housed 78,000 volumes. Governor George Romney requested $750,000 in planning funds for a new library from the state legislature, a decision that Tech president J.R. Van Pelt credited with expediting the construction by two years. Herman Gundlach, Inc., submitted the successful bid for the general contract, and work began shortly thereafter, with a “snowbreaking” held on February 11, 1965. The building, situated just east of the Memorial Union Building on College Avenue, totaled 80,000 square feet over four stories, offered space for 225,000 volumes, and seated 1,000 students. According to a December 1964 press release, each of these figures represented a six-fold increase of the prior capacity. The design of the library also emphasized “flexibility provided by a modular plan of construction,” simultaneously reducing the number of interior walls, and created private study areas “around the periphery of the stacks.” Graduate students and faculty enjoyed designated study spaces, and new homes were made for the Michigan Tech Archives, microforms, and typing stations. In a move that might seem confusing to modern eyes, the design prominently incorporated a smoking room for patrons. On October 29, 1966, dignitaries gathered at a large dedication ceremony for the completed new facility, which architect Ralph Calder characterized as “the most inspiring” of campus buildings “because it is the intellectual focus on campus.” The library subsequently received the name of J.R. Van Pelt, in honor of the president who led Tech during its construction.

Time marched on, and campus growth and development once again compelled changes to the library building. When the North Central Association made a university accreditation visit in the 1997-1998 school year, reviewers suggested that Tech “plan to increase the size and scope of library resources” and find funding for future improvements of the library physical plant. A proposal in 2000 to create a Center for Integrated Learning and Information Technology (CILIT), which would help to provide some of the improvements and connect the library to Fisher Hall, met with some resistance from staff writers at the Lode, and the building, as proposed, never came to fruition. Instead, the suggested CILIT structure became Rekhi Hall. Meanwhile, a $5 million donation from John Opie (class of 1961) and his wife Ruanne funded the most extensive renovation and expansion of the library since the mid-1960s construction. The Opie Library expansion to the Van Pelt Library, dedicated in April 2005, created a soaring new reading room with a prominent glass front, two dozen study rooms for team projects and collaboration, and “the latest technologies, including an information wall” to provide “the latest on library and campus activities, as well as a steady stream of news and weather.” In the 54,000 square feet of additional space, students also had access to a large number of public computers. Meanwhile, visitors to the garden level would find the archives had been moved from their place on the second floor to a new, purpose-built facility that expanded reading room seating and provided secure, climate-controlled storage for irreplaceable historical records.

The building may be different, from its style to its location; the collection may have grown from 3,000 to several hundred thousand volumes; the smoking room may, thankfully, have given way to computer labs and cafes. Despite the changes over the years, it’s undeniable that the library has always been and remains a cornerstone of Michigan Tech.

What memories of the library stand out for you?