Fred Kummer
Founding Chair, 2020-2021
The late Fred Kummer was the founder, president and CEO of St. Louis-based HBE Corp., the world’s leading design-build firm for health care. Known for his hands-on leadership and attention to detail, he and his wife, June Kummer, have been among Missouri S&T’s most generous donors over the years.
In addition to their gift to establish the Kummer Institute, the Kummers provided the lead gift for the Kummer Student Design Center, which houses Missouri S&T’s 18 student-run design teams. They also supported the expansion of Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Hall and the construction of Toomey Hall, which houses S&T’s mechanical and aerospace engineering programs, and provided the naming gift for the Fred and June Kummer Garden at Hasselmann Alumni House.
Fred Kummer earned a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Missouri S&T (then known as the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy) in 1955. His father was an engineer with a hotel company in New York City, and Kummer developed his business savvy in the hotel basement, where he and a high school classmate ran a printing press to print menus for restaurants in other neighborhood hotels. He attended City College of New York before transferring to Missouri S&T.
While in college at Rolla, Kummer worked for a St. Louis architectural firm and there he met June, an architect and graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. He left the university in 1952 to join the Army, married June while in the service and returned to Rolla in 1954 to complete his degree.
Kummer was a member of the Missouri S&T Board of Trustees and the University of Missouri Board of Curators. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural class of Missouri S&T’s Alumni of Influence.
Kummer founded HBE Corp. in 1960 with $25,000 in the bank, he said in a 1993 article in Missouri S&T’s alumni magazine. The company provides planning, interior designs, pricing, scheduling and engineering services. It also designs and builds health care facilities, financial institutions and hotels. His early design-build construction work included some buildings on the S&T campus, including the Gale Bullman Building and Curtis Laws Wilson Library.
Kummer passed away April 30, 2021, at age 92. “No individual was more supportive of this institution, and no individual more passionate about advancing this university’s mission, than Fred Kummer,” Missouri S&T Chancellor Mo Dehghani said.
Dr. Mohammad "Mo" Dehghani
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mohammad (Mo) Dehghani became chancellor of Missouri University of Science and Technology on Aug. 1, 2019. A mechanical engineer, Dehghani is a nationally prominent research and academic leader who has experience leading complex organizations and building collaborative teams.
Dehghani joined S&T from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he served as vice provost for research, innovation and entrepreneurship since 2013. At Stevens, he led the university’s continuing development of research programs and implementation of the research and scholarship component of the university’s strategic plan.
Before joining Stevens, Dehghani was a professor of mechanical engineering and founding director of the Johns Hopkins University Systems Institute. Through that institute, he established collaborative research and application programs with several organizations, including the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Health and Human Services, with internal divisions at Hopkins, including Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Whiting School of Engineering and the Applied Physics Laboratory.
Prior to joining Hopkins in 2008, Dehghani led the New Technologies Division at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The laboratory is a $1.8 billion, 7,000-employee multidisciplinary applied science and engineering national security laboratory with programs in advanced defense technologies, energy, environment, biosciences and basic sciences.
At Lawrence Livermore, Dehghani helped develop technologies and expand many areas of engineering, including biomedical engineering, nuclear engineering, process systems and the traditional engineering disciplines of mechanical engineering, electronics, fluidics, and multi-scale modeling and simulations.
Dehghani holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Louisiana State University, where he also earned his master of science and bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering. He also completed a postdoctoral NSF internship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Susan Simmons
Chair
Susan Simmons retired as the senior resident engineer at the Anheuser-Busch St. Louis brewery in 2016. She joined Anheuser-Busch as a project engineer in corporate engineering in 1986. Simmons spent the next 16 years working in roles of increasing responsibility and leadership with multi-disciplinary teams modernizing, expanding, and operating Anheuser-Busch breweries across the United States. Simmons also worked with a partner in Japan implementing process changes for brewing Budweiser there, as well as in the Anheuser-Busch brewery in England. She transitioned to the St. Louis brewery in 2002. Simmons was responsible for capital planning for the facility, capital execution at the brewery level, maintenance strategies across the plant, and information technology and leadership of the utilities operation.
At Missouri S&T, Simmons is a member of the Academy of Chemical Engineers. She has served as a guest lecturer for the Chancellor’s Leadership Academy and has served on the Corporate Development Council. Simmons has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 2016 and is currently serving as the Vice President of the Board. Simmons was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame in 2005.
R. Tim Bradley
R. Tim Bradley, of Austin, Texas, earned a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from Missouri S&T in 1977. The retired president of Houston-based Kinder Morgan CO2 Co., Bradley began his career with Shell Oil in west Texas and held many positions with the company, including manager of Shell’s enhanced oil recovery operations and president of Shell CO2, a joint venture between Shell and Kinder Morgan. When Shell sold its stake in 2000, Bradley became president of Kinder Morgan C02. Under his leadership, the company grew into North America’s largest producer, transporter and marketer of carbon dioxide and the second-largest oil producer in Texas. A member of the Missouri S&T Board of Trustees, Bradley was inducted into the S&T Academy of Mines and Metallurgy in April 2013 and received an Award of Professional Distinction from S&T in May 2014. In 2019 Bradley delivered the commencement address at S&T and received an honorary doctorate. He and his wife, Kay, are members of the Missouri S&T Order of the Golden Shillelagh.
David Braswell
David Braswell is a retired attorney and longtime advisor to philanthropist Fred Kummer. A native of Carbondale, Illinois, David spent most of his career in St. Louis. He earned his law degree from Stanford Law School in 1995 and retired in 2023 from Armstrong Teasdale, where he practiced corporate, securities and transactional law for 28 years. Braswell also served the firm as chairman and managing partner. Braswell brings extensive experience in trust administration and philanthropic governance through his work with the Kummer family in support of Missouri S&T.
Bipin N. Doshi
Bipin N. Doshi retired in 2017 as chair, president and CEO of Schafer Industries Inc., a leading producer of high precision, custom-engineered gears and machined parts.
Before joining Schafer, Doshi was vice president and general manager of Uniroyal Graphic Arts Division of Uniroyal, which he joined in 1963 as a project manager. Doshi is a member and past president of the Academy of Chemical Engineering at Missouri S&T. A member of the Board of Trustees since 2013, Doshi was honored as one of Missouri S&T’s Alumni of Influence in 2016.
In 2020, the Doshis established an endowment for Missouri S&T’s chemical and biochemical engineering department. The gift was the first of its kind for Missouri S&T. Their generosity gave the department a new name and a permanent foundation for growth through faculty, fellowship and equipment endowments.
Doshi earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from Missouri S&T in 1962 and 1963, respectively, and received an award of professional distinction in chemical engineering in 2001. In 2019, Missouri S&T awarded him an honorary degree.
Gary Forsee
Gary Forsee is a Missouri S&T 1972 alumnus with a degree in civil engineering. He was later awarded an Honorary Professional Engineering and an Honorary Doctorate degree from S&T.
Forsee spent 35 years in the telecommunications industry, holding executive leadership roles at AT&T, Sprint, BellSouth and Global One Communications, where he served as CEO in Brussels, Belgium. He later returned to Sprint as chairman and CEO, leading the company through its merger with Nextel and advancing major community investments, including the Sprint Center in Kansas City.
From 2007 to 2011, Forsee served as president of the University of Missouri System, overseeing its four campuses with a focus on individual campus strategic leadership, research and support of statewide economic development.
He has served on numerous public and nonprofit boards and his civic leadership has earned him numerous honors, including Business Week’s Best Manager Award, the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, the Henry Bloch Award for Community Relations and the Hawthorne Foundation Kit Bond Citizenship award.
Forsee and his wife, Sherry, live in Kansas City and are philanthropists supporting higher education, the arts and community organizations throughout Missouri.
Eric G. Politte
Eric G. Politte, of Spring, Texas, earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Missouri S&T in 1982. An engineer, entrepreneur, business leader and investor with more than 40 years of experience, Politte has founded and co-founded more than 20 companies, spanning oil and gas, construction, and real estate, leading many of them through successful public and private exits. He currently owns and leads ATI Instrumental & Electrical, Colorado Mining Resources, and numerous real estate holding companies. He also co-owns downstream petroleum product logistics operations and invests in startups. He began his career as a mechanical engineer at Exxon before moving into leadership roles and embarking on entrepreneurial endeavors. Beyond entrepreneurship, he serves on a public water board, several volunteer boards and is a lifetime member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Politte has three children, each a successful engineer, and nine grandchildren.
Richard F. Wacker
Richard F. Wacker, of Honolulu County, Hawaii, earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Missouri S&T in 1984. After holding company officer and senior leadership positions with General Electric in the U.S. and Europe, he was named chief operating officer, president and CEO, and chair of the board with Korea Exchange Bank in 2004. From 2010 through 2021 he was president and CEO of American Savings Bank. Wacker has served on many boards of organizations focused on entrepreneurship, education, health and finance. He helped establish the Korea Exchange Bank Foundation, the first social welfare organization in the Korean financial industry. Wacker is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Kathryn E. Walker
Kathryn E. Walker is managing director at OpenAir Equity Partners, a venture capital firm focused on investments in early-stage technology innovation.
Previously, Walker worked for Sprint Nextel for more than 24 years. As chief network and information officer at Sprint Nextel, she was responsible for planning, design and operation of the company’s IT and network organizations.
At Missouri S&T, Walker is a member of the Academy of Engineering Management. She has served on the Engineering Advisory Board and Career Development Council and has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 2008, serving as board president from 2018–2020. Walker is an Alumni Achievement Award recipient and was inducted into the Women in Science and Engineering Hall of Fame. She and her husband, Mark, also a Missouri S&T graduate, established the Kathy & Mark Walker Endowed Scholarship.
Walker earned a bachelor’s degree from South Dakota State University in 1981. In 1982 she earned a master’s degree in engineering management from Missouri S&T and received an award of professional distinction in engineering management in 1999.