"One of the main reasons I volunteer for UMR is to try to help ensure that current and future students have the opportunity to enjoy the sort of experience I did during my student years. UMR is small enough to enable all students to participate in a wide variety of campus activities beyond the classroom."

- Keith Bailey ME'64

"Education is high on my priority list. Helping others attain an education is also high on my priority list. I also look at the efforts I get involved with as a way to pass on the blessings I have been given to others."

- Gail Hahn ChE'82

"Being an active member of the Academy of Electrical & Computer Engineering is an honor and a pleasure. It is satisfying to see so many good things happening at UMR and gratifying to be involved. Recognizing that UMR graduates play a key role in defining the future, helping them prepare for what lies ahead, benefits us all."

- Ron Willoughby EE'73

"UMR is a top notch engineering school and I'm extremely proud to be a graduate. I want to help uphold the reputation of the school. I want to help see that we maintain our high standard of education."

- Matt Coco CE'66

"I volunteer my time for UMR and UM because I received a great deal at UMR at very little cost. I have an obligation to repay that debt. I enjoy accomplishing things, and I can see where my efforts have resulted in real improvements in the environmental engineering program, the civil, architectural and environmental engineering department, and UMR overall. The benefit for me is in knowing that I made a difference."

- John Mathes CE'67

"My civil engineering education at UMR prepared me for all of the professional success I've enjoyed. I remain involved as a way to give back to the university and try to help fulfill today's mission to provide that same quality education for future professional engineers. It's just one of those small ways you repay the debt you owe them for what you've been able to accomplish in life."

- Bill Clarke CE'74

"My wife and I attended UMR, and were both in computer science at a time when that program was in its infancy at UMR. Two things attracted us to Rolla. First, the curriculum was a practical application of computer science, as opposed to theoretical. Second, a lot of faculty members had come from industry and business. The money we gave was designated for an endowed chair in computer science. We viewed it as helping to strengthen the curriculum and the faculty's ability to deal with today's computer environment."

- Daryl Ann & Bill Eaton

"As a result of creating the Mathes Professorship in Environmental Engineering, held by Dr. Craig Adams, and the great people we've gotten to work with, Susan and I have had the chance to participate in something that is much greater than we could have ever accomplished on our own. Through this professorship, Craig was able to build a program that attracted additional faculty and students to UMR - and that, I believe, helped propel the civil, environmental and architectural engineering department to a national ranking. I feel we made a great investment, and that feeling caused us to invest again - to move the professorship to a full chair - and expand on our success."

- John A. Mathes

"My wife and I both believe education of our young people is paramount in solving problems of society, both at home and across the world, and we want to do whatever we can toward that end. We both also believe that the most effective avenue for us is to provide scholarships for deserving and aspiring students attending UMR."

- Lee & Mimi Powell

"UMR gave me an excellent scientific education and ROTC training, which provided me the enlightening experiences associated with serving as an Army officer in Europe and the building blocks that enabled me to have a rewarding life by starting work with a good salary and successively working my way into management, my own business, and financial independence. For this I am eternally grateful."

- Gary Havener

"Giving back to Miner by way of a chair in biochemistry culminates my lifelong career that started at MSM and expanded into chemical analysis, environmental contaminants and biochemistry. This chair brings all these disciplines together to help meet tomorrow's needs in protecting our valuable resources from further environmental pollution and to make new scientific breakthroughs in medical care."

- Richard "Dick" Vitek

"I give back out of a sense of thankfulness. Graduates with good jobs and good lives are being unrealistic if they think they could have done it without their UMR education. I give back to help UMR realize its unlimited potential and to help others see that potential."

- Jorge Ochoa

"My husband Dale, ME'97, and I both received scholarships as undergraduates. It really made a difference because our parents didn't have the funds to send us to college. We endowed a scholarship to help supplement another college student's opportunity. We targeted it to members of my sorority and Dale's fraternity because we feel those groups really made a difference in our lives and gave us lots of opportunities. "

- Patricia Ruma Spence

"As the oldest of six children in a home of modest means, my college funding had to come from student loans and summer work. This also meant that I needed to find the best educational opportunity available to me for my limited resources. UMR gave me a world-class education at a bargain price and became the key to my future. I support UMR as an excellent educational opportunity at a cost that any determined, hard-working, young person can manage. "

- Rick Jordan

"I've always believed the world needs good engineers, and I think they come from Rolla. Chuck Remington, ME'49, MS ME'50, and I were talking one day quite a few years ago about the need for scholarship money for students. We tried to fill that need. We found a way to expand on that recently and hopefully it will be carried on and continued after I'm gone. We really need to inspire more young people to the profession. "

- Rayferd Routh