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Gordon Niva was honored with the Jerome J. Lohr Award for Volunteer Leadership in recognition of his involvement and support of the South Dakota State University Foundation. 

The award was announced Oct. 10 in conjunction with the SDSU Foundation’s fall Council of Trustees meeting. The announcement was made by Jerry Lohr, one of SDSU’s largest benefactors and a member of the foundation board since 1988. 

The SDSU Foundation created the Lohr Award in 1999 to honor an individual “who demonstrates exemplary volunteer leadership on behalf of the SDSU Foundation and outstanding philanthropic support of SDSU.” 

Lohr personally selects the winner of the award each year. Lohr described Niva’s decade-long service on the foundation’s Board of Governors, his involvement in past university fundraising campaigns, and the employment opportunities he’s made available to SDSU graduates. 

Niva graduated from SDSU in 1973 with degrees in engineering physics and chemistry. Outside of the classroom, his Jackrabbits career included membership on the Hobo Day Committee, and as an alum, he served as the last Weary Willie in 1975 before the title shifted to Weary Wil. 

Niva went on to graduate school at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, earning his master’s in physics in 1975 and a Ph.D. in astrophysics in 1979. He married his college sweetheart, Susan Lahr (’73 pharmacy), in 1975. 

Niva’s career began with Rockwell International of Anaheim, California, working in systems engineering until 1996, when Boeing acquired his business unit. Niva remained with Boeing until his retirement in 2011, serving in countless positions involving missile defense. He spent 30 years in the Army National Guard and progressed to the rank of colonel. 

Today, Niva is CEO of Aerofly, a drone technology company that has been instrumental in SDSU engineering students’ success in ongoing NASA competitions. He also serves as CEO/chief technology officer of mySmartHome, an IoT company specializing in innovative sensor technology, which he and Lahr founded in 2012. 

Niva and his wife remain active within the Jackrabbits community, with Niva serving on the SDSU Foundation’s Council of Trustees since 2010. The couple supports a scholarship for the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, and the two were some of the inaugural challenge donors during the foundation’s first One Day for STATE celebration in 2017, consistently giving year after year.

Niva is the 22nd recipient of the prestigious award. Other past recipients include: 

• Anson Yeager, former editor of the Argus Leader and lead donor of Yeager Hall who passed away in 2005.
• Roland Jensen, a former energy industry leader who served on the board until his death in 2006.
• Dr. Charles “Scotty” Roberts, a physician and local philanthropist until his death in 2004.
• Bill Larson, a Colorado rancher who earned three degrees at SDSU in the 1960s.
• Aelred J. Kurtenbach of Brookings, a co-founder of Daktronics.
• Duane Sander of Brookings, a co-founder of Daktronics.
• Errol EerNisse of Salt Lake City, an electrical engineering graduate and founder of multiple research-based companies.
• Barbara B. Fishback of Brookings, a home economics graduate who is active in local, regional and statewide organizations.
• Dana Dykhouse, an agricultural business graduate and CEO of First PREMIER Bank in Sioux Falls.
• Duane Harms, an agricultural business graduate and owner and president of Harms Oil Co. in Brookings.
• Paul Moriarty, a homebuilder, developer and apartment owner in Brookings who passed away in 2025.
• Bill Folkerts, real estate investor and owner in Watertown.
• Keith Bartels, former vice president of The Martin Group Inc. in Mitchell.
• Cathy Voelzke, former nutrition marketing program manager for Midwest Dairy Association in Brookings.
• John “Jack” Marshman, former president of Sioux Falls Construction who passed away in 2018.
• Jim Woster, an animal science graduate, South Dakota Hall of Fame inductee and volunteer at countless organizations across the state, including the SDSU Foundation.
• David Anderson, a senior research scientist at Elanco Animal Health and creator of SDSU’s Weary Wil and Dirty Lil statues outside the student union.
• Steve Stahly, an agricultural and resource economics graduate and principal of Stahly Investments of west Des Moines, Iowa.
• Jim Morgan, a 1969 electrical engineering graduate who built a decades-long career with Daktronics and was responsible for the design of the company’s first scoreboard in 1971.
• Frank Kurtenbach, a 1961 health sciences graduate who went on to a longstanding career with Daktronics and who provided key funding to create the Frank J. Kurtenbach Family Wrestling Center at SDSU.
• Cathy Vander Wal-Rounds, a 1977 psychology graduate of SDSU who founded Rounds Construction in 1992 with her husband, Keith. The Rounds family was named the foundation’s 2018 Philanthropic Family of the Year for their longstanding support of athletics, scholarships and more.