Alumni
Eric Potts: Urban cowboy
Eric Potts, CE’73, calls himself an urban cowboy. The Texas transplant and retired Army colonel has lived all over the world. But it wasn’t until he landed in the Lone Star State that he learned to tell an Angus from a Charolais.
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Dave Bayless: the power of leadership
The oil crisis of the 1970s ignited Dave Bayless’s passion for energy. A few years at the Naval Power School in the late 1980s opened up an interest in teaching. And multiple entrepreneurial experiences fueled a new cause — integrating leadership education into engineering education.
A fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, Bayless, ME’87, credits Virgil Flanigan, ME’60, MS ME’62, PhD ME’68, professor emeritus of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Missouri S&T, and his advisors at the University of Illinois, the late Jim Peters and Richard Buckius, with sparking his interest in research.
Paul Friz: a future in outer space
When he was a teenager, Missouri S&T doctoral student and former NASA employee Paul Friz looked up into the night sky and found the twinkling points of light, a thousand beacons in the darkness, irresistible. He was hooked.
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Dan Amsden and Kevin Fritzmeyer: Workplace wisdom and professional perspective
Dan Amsden, MS EMgt’75, and Kevin Fritzmeyer, EMgt’85, believe every student needs a sounding board — someone who is there to bounce around the big questions about life beyond college. For the past six years, they’ve given S&T students that perspective through a mentoring program sponsored by the Academy of Engineering Management.
Read More »Boonchai Songthumvat: educating Thailand
Boonchai Songthumvat, MS EMgt’76, is doing everything he can to make education possible for children in Thailand. Known as Boon, Songthumvat and his wife, Nuchanart, own Nuboon Co., a Bangkok-based manufacturer of fruit and vegetable juices, coffee and tea.
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Jack Wright: a golden year for the Arch
Fifty years ago this October, the St. Louis skyline was changed forever by the construction of the Gateway Arch, built as a monument to U.S. westward expansion.
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Matt Coco: stepping up to deliver a dream
Matt Coco, CE’66, remembers the first meeting nearly a decade ago as if it were yesterday. He and other past presidents of the Miner Alumni Association had gathered to discuss a major project — a campus home for the association.
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Chili man
Larry Eastep, CE’69, MS CE’76, started cooking chili competitively in the early ’90s. He competes five to 10 times a year, making everything from traditional red chili to chili verde and salsa in 18 states and Canada. Eastep is considered a Grand Master Cook by the International Chili Society (ICS).
Read More »French honors
William Shaw, CE’49, a World War II veteran, was awarded the French Legion of Honor, the highest award that France bestows, for his service in helping to liberate France from Nazi control.
Read More »Reliving history
World War II veteran Joseph Senne, MS CE’51, former chair of civil engineering at Missouri S&T, flew to Washington, D.C., in October to visit the national war memorials as part of the San Diego Honor Flight. Senne, who joined the Navy in 1942 as a petty officer first class, was on Okinawa when the peace […]
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