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South Dakota State University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has benefited from the generosity of alum John M. Hanson since his creation of an endowed professorship in 2013.

He attended Grand View Country School north of Brookings as a youngster. As the school’s only seventh grader, the teacher thought him capable of learning with the school’s three eighth graders. That was 1945. He went on to graduate from Brookings High School in 1949 and enroll at South Dakota State at age 17.

Hanson earned his degree in civil engineering and spent two years in the Air Force as an engineer.

By age 25 he had earned his master’s degree in structural engineering from Iowa State and was working as a structural engineer with Banner and Associates in Laramie, Wyoming. He earned a Ph.D. from Lehigh University in 1964 and spent seven years in the structural laboratory of Portland Cement Association doing research on the strength and behavior of concrete structures.

But he is most defined by his 20 years at Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, where he spent 14 years as president, retiring in December 1992. The Chicago-based firm, which has more than 500 employees nationwide, specializes in solving civil engineering problems. Hanson was the firm’s 24th employee.

The year he retired from Wiss, Janney, Elstner, his peers tabbed him for membership in the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional honors accorded an engineer.

Hanson signed an agreement to create the endowed professorship Oct. 24, 2013. Nadim Wehbe was selected in January 2014 as the inaugural professor.