Leave it to the engineers and scientists to be exact.

The 125th anniversary celebration for the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology will begin exactly at 1:25 p.m. on Monday -- 1/25.

The event, designed to showcase the historical growth of the campus, will display memorabilia and information from the university's opening in 1885. Coins from 1885, historic photos, old yearbooks and newspapers will be a few of the featured items. There will also be entertainment, refreshments and speakers.

Patty Andersen, director of the Devereaux Library at the School of Mines, has been gathering information about the university's history for several years and learned some interesting things along the way.

The first class graduated in 1890 and consisted of two women and one man. The arches in the middle of campus were the original arches in the former liberal arts building, which was torn down in 1994. Construction workers labeled the bricks of the arch before dismantling it and then reconstructed it in 1996.

Andersen has been at the university since 1984 and has watched the university grow to include more women, more minorities and more focused on research.

"The school has a tremendous history," School of Mines President Robert Wharton said.

It opened more than two centuries ago in Dakota Territory to support the mining industry and develop best practice and research for mining, he said.

The university continues to change, he said, to support science, engineering and technology education while focusing on research by staff and students.

Ties to the state's deep underground science laboratory at the old Homestake gold mine in Lead has been a "game changer" for the university, he said, providing numerous research opportunities for students and staff.

"We maintain excellence in education, but growth in research and graduate programs is intimately tied to that," he said. "Graduate students want to have access to professors conducting state-of-the-art research."

The university has also grown physically. Currently, a building to support the university's paleontology lab is under construction and will be completed by the year's end, Wharton said.

A chemical and engineering building is also under construction and will be finished by next fall, and school officials recently celebrated a renovation to the Surbeck Center.

Students have flip-flopped living spaces between Connolly and Palmerton residence halls while renovations are under way there, and all of the work should be finished by the end of the semester, Wharton said.

It's all very different from when Howard Peterson said he first stepped on to campus as a "scared, homesick" 17-year-old in 1946. About 90 percent of the students, he estimated, were veterans returning from World War II. He still remembers the professor asking one of his classes of about 25 how many were just out of high school. He was the only one to raise his hand.

There are only three buildings still standing on campus from his days at the school. He graduated in 1950, worked as an engineer and returned to work in the Dean of Students' office, where he stayed for 35 years and eventually became the Dean.

Students and staff on campus still refer to him as "Dean Pete," one of the dorms was named after him and he continues to volunteer at the university. He will speak at the university's celebration Monday.

"I love the place so much," he said. "I love the students."

The young people, he said, are hard working and dedicated.

"It's been a good life and a gratifying career."

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com