MICHIGAN TECH TO BESTOW HONORS

HOUGHTON--Michigan Tech will award an honorary doctorate and two Silver Medals during commencement ceremonies this Saturday (May 20).

An honorary doctorate in mechanical engineering will go to former Board of Control member and Ford Motor Company executive Daniel Rivard of Northville. Rivard received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan Tech in 1959, then launched a 35-year career with the Ford Motor Company, starting as a project engineer in chassis design. Through the years, he worked in a variety of areas  for the automaker, including chassis and powertrain design ride and handling, occupant protection and crash management, and vehicle dynamics. He held senior management positions in passenger car development and light truck operations, before retiring in 1992 as executive director of the company's North American Automotive Operations Quality and Process Improvement.

He was called out of retirement in 1994 to head Ford's Special Vehicle Operations, which included responsibility for world wide racing and Ford's specialty vehicle group responsible for Mustang Cobra, Cobra "R," SVT Contour, and other specialty vehicles. He retired a second time in December 1997. In November of 1998 he chaired the Third SAE International Motorsports Conference. Throughout his professional life, he has maintained his Michigan Tech connection, serving on the Board of Control, Michigan Tech Fund Board of Trustees, MTU Alumni Association,  and the Industrial Advisory Council of the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics.

Board of Control Silver Medals will be presented to Peter Grant and Gary Tucker. The Silver Medal symbolizes personal success--the significant accomplishments of Michigan Tech alumni or friends at the local, state, national, or international level.

Grant graduated from Michigan Tech in 1968 with a degree in civil engineering. After spending several years in construction, he began a new career in the wood products industry at Elk Lake, Ontario, where he  eventually became president of the Elk Lake Planing Mill, which produces 100 million board feet of lumber annually. He later founded Grant Lumber Company Limited and Grant's Transport Limited of New Liskcard, Ontario and served as president of both until 1985. During this same period, he founded Grant Waferboard in Englehart, Ontario. Later renamed Grant Forest Products, Inc., this plant is the largest single site consumer of round wood in the Province of Ontario. Grant Forest Products is presently building a $250 million oriented strandboard mill at High Level, Alberta in a joint venture with Ainsworth Lumber Company, Ltd.

Grant currently is chairman of the Structural Board Association, which represents the common interests of waferboard and strandboard manufacturers in Canada, the United States, England, France, Chile, Poland, and Scotland. He has also remained involved with his alma mater, serving as a member of MTU's Civil and Environmental Engineering Academy, the Presidents Society, and the Second Century Society. He has also served on the executive council for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering's "Partnering With the Future Campaign." A former Michigan Tech hockey player, he remains a strong supporter of the hockey Huskies and in 1999 he established the Peter J. Grant Hockey Educational Center on the MTU campus.

Tucker received his B.S. degree in forestry from Michigan Tech in 1959 and went to work as a district forester in Idaho. He later worked in sawmills in Wyoming and Montana before beginning a career in land management that has brought him distinction. Starting in Arizona in 1977, he was responsible for managing 460,000 acres and administering 1.3 billion board feet of timber as a vice president for Southwest Forest Industries. In 1984 he moved on to the Plum Creek Timber Company in Seattle, where he was responsible for timber management on 1.5 million acres of forest land in Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. In 1989 he joined Trees, Incorporated, a Washington-based consulting company, which focuses on increasing assets for clients in the timber industry.

Since 1996, Tucker has been president and chief executive officer of Pope Resources/Olympic Resource Management, which acquires, owns and manages land for itself and others in Washington, Oregon, and California. He has been a member of numerous professional associations, including the Board of Governors of the National Forest Products Association in Washington,DC. He has maintained his close ties with the School of Forestry and Wood Products at Michigan Tech and is a member of its honor Academy.

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05/16/00-MTN301

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