The following opinion piece by Dr. Richard K. Brow, executive director of operations for the Kummer Institute for Student Success, Research and Economic Development, was published in the St. Louis Business Journal.

Five years ago, St. Louis businessman Fred Kummer and his wife, June, made history with a $300 million gift to Missouri University of Science and Technology. It remains the largest single donation in Missouri higher education and has not only transformed the university but also positively influenced the state’s economy and S&T’s reach across the nation and around the world.  

Fred Kummer was no ordinary donor. A 1955 civil engineering graduate of Missouri S&T, he credited the university in Rolla for giving him the foundation to build HBE Corp. in St. Louis into a global leader in design-build health care construction. His gift was both a gesture of gratitude and a plan to provide new generations of students the opportunities that shaped his own career.  

That gift is now bearing abundant fruit.  

This year, Missouri S&T achieved the Carnegie R-1 classification, placing it among the nation’s top research universities. Annual research spending has exceeded $60 million, and projects seeded with Kummer support have already attracted more than $11 million in external funding.  

The gift also established four new research centers in advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, resource sustainability and bioinnovation. These centers are organized research efforts led by directors recruited to bring faculty, students and industry partners together to accelerate discovery and help solve some of society’s most pressing challenges.

To support their work and S&T’s growth, major facilities are rising across campus. The Innovation Lab is now open and is a place for students’ imaginations to take flight. The Welcome Center stands ready to greet prospective students and visitors. The Missouri Protoplex, a 116,000-square-foot hub for manufacturing research and development, will open next spring.   

The renovation and expansion of the Engineering Research Lab, which was renamed the Applied Research Center, is underway and will include a 2,500-square-foot cleanroom to support our new semiconductor engineering bachelor’s degree program — the first of its kind in the nation — and our nanotechnology, microelectronics and materials science research when it opens in late 2026.  

We also broke ground earlier this year on the Bioplex — the largest capital project in university history and our future epicenter for bioinnovation and medical engineering. 

More than $14 million from the Kummers’ gift has funded scholarships, doctoral fellowships and programming for students from Rolla, St. Louis, around the country and around the world.  

We are also proud of how Missouri S&T’s K-12 outreach extends far beyond Rolla. Since 2021, the Kummer Center for STEM Education has reached more than 16,000 participants through campus events, taken its STEM Mobile to 29 Missouri counties and awarded almost $380,000 in summer camp scholarships.  

Camps now draw students from 30 states and nine countries, and the center’s free Miners in the Making after-school program serves children in three Phelps County school districts. 

The gift’s economic ripple is already evident and continuing to expand, with projections showing a multibillion-dollar boost to Missouri’s economy in the decades ahead thanks to new invention disclosures, job creation, industry partnerships and ongoing research investment.

Some familiar companies, including Boeing and Caterpillar, have already signed agreements to use the Protoplex when it opens for business next year and will house senior engineers in the facility. Solvus Global, a mid-size company with two manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts, has decided to open a third facility in Rolla and has already started hiring S&T engineers to work in this plant.

Fred Kummer never forgot the education that launched his career, and he and June wanted their gift to create opportunities far beyond his St. Louis home or his Rolla alma mater.

When he and June announced the historic gift, Fred summed up their rationale for supporting Missouri S&T.

“I owe much of my success to the education I received at Rolla,” he said. “My Rolla experience taught me how to think, how to work hard and how to manage my own career. June and I believe in the mission of this great university, and that’s why we have chosen to invest in S&T’s future success. We believe that Missouri S&T’s best days are ahead.”

And based on the progress we’ve made over the past five years, it’s clear he was exactly right. We only wish he and June were here to see it and take part in the Kummer Day celebration we host every October.

Dr. Richard K. Brow is executive director of operations for Missouri University of Science and Technology’s Kummer Institute for Student Success, Research and Economic Development and a Curators’ Distinguished Professor emeritus of materials science and engineering.