Dennis J. Moore

Dennis Moore arrived at Michigan Tech in 1973 to assume the role of staff manager of the Metallurgical Engineering Department’s “new” foundry in the basement of the Chem-Met Building. For the next 29 years in this and subsequent facilities in the Minerals and Materials Building, he and Professor Karl Rundman built a metalcasting program that has educated hundreds of students and has launched successful careers for Michigan Tech alumni throughout this industry.

Dennis received an Associate-in-Engineering degree in Metals Engineering Technology with a foundry option in 1962 from Wentworth Institute in Boston, MA. Following completion, he joined Draper Corporation, a cast iron foundry that produced castings for automatic textile looms. He later

joined Abex Corporation in Toledo, OH and St. Louis, MO., serving as a shift supervisor in their steel foundry and producing steel freight car wheels. In 1966, Dennis joined McDonnel-Douglas Aircraft Corporation in St. Louis in the metallurgical failure analysis lab. While at MDC, Dennis earned a BS in Applied Physics from University of Missouri – St. Louis. He moved his family to Houghton in 1973 at the urging of Professor Al Hendrickson.

Though tasked with managing the foundry at Michigan Tech, Dennis’ responsibilities expanded over the years to include supervision of the department’s deformation and heat treating labs. These duties placed him in the path of thousands of students in the laboratory sections of the metal

casting, mechanical metallurgy, and materials selection and design courses of the metallurgical engineering curriculum. Dennis’ passion for his work and the generous, dedicated, and personable mentoring that he provided to all of our students has been instrumental in the success of our alumni, and the admiration that they continue to hold for the department and Michigan Tech.

Now retired, Dennis has become famous for his photographs of wildflowers of the north woods. He continues to be a regular attendee of the Wednesday MSE coffee hours, where he shares his wisdom of all things with the next generations of students. Dennis and wife Pauline have three children; Kathleen, Matthew, and Christopher.