Bob Carnahan '53

An Entrepreneur's Entrepreneur

When Bob Carnahan '53 graduated from Michigan Tech, a whole new era was clearly at hand in materials technology.

After graduation, Carnahan served three years in the US Navy and then began his career in research and development. While working on his PhD in materials science, he was delving into new materials technology and developing the spirit of entrepreneurship that has characterized so much of his life and philanthropy.

By 1980, he had worked his way up to senior vice president for science and technology at US Gypsum. He left that position to become president and chief operating officer at Thixomat, a company he co-founded.

As Carnahan continued to play a leadership role in his industry, he also made his mark as an analytical thinker, innovator, and developer of new ideas in materials engineering. A member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he holds fourteen industrial patents, is the author of more than sixty publications, and has become a world leader in materials science.

Carnahan also has been active in philanthropy at Tech, capping his giving in 1999 with a $2-million commitment to create the Dr. Robert D. Carnahan Business of Technology Endowed Chair in the School of Business and Economics. In making his gift, Carnahan explained, "My entire education at Tech - room, board, travel, and so forth - cost a total of $2,500 for all four years. Wow, what a payback!"

Go to Michigan Tech Fund where you can specify your own donation for Materials Science Engineering

Franklin M. St. John '60

Moving into Biotechnology

In several cases, Michigan Tech alumni have moved from their first career field, metallurgy and materials, into related areas of biomedical technology. One such Tech graduate, who has achieved success in both fields, is Franklin M. St. John, '60.

Frank St. John grew up in L'Anse, Michigan. He graduated from Michigan Tech with a degree in metallurgy and quickly joined Pratt and Whitney Aircraft, a division of United Technologies, in East Hartford, Connecticut. His career progressed through various stages, working for others, until he and a colleague founded Jensen Industries in 1976. Their company became a leading manufacturer and world-wide marketer of precious and non-precious dental products.

Ever the entrepreneur, St. John also became an owner and principal of HerbaSway Laboratories, a manufacturer of traditional Chinese herbal medicines, and he began to develop his interest in herbal neutraceuticals. In 1992, he formed another company, Summy Scientific, which focused on cancer research, where he was chairman of the board. That company failed, as often happens with entrepreneurial ventures.

In 1994, he founded St. John Enterprises in China as a financial interface between China and US operations. At about the same time, he began a joint venture, St. John Yung Fu Guilin Botanical Co., Ltd., which grows and processes herbal extracts. In 1998, American Druggist, a journal of the pharmaceutical industry, cited HerbaSway Laboratories for developing herbal alternatives to such emerging drugs as Viagra.

St. John, who retired as an active officer of Jensen Industries in 1988, has maintained an active role in all the companies in which he is involved and has been a major participant in the affairs of Michigan Tech.

He received the Board of Control Silver Medal in 1991 and an honorary PhD in 1999, and he has established several memorial endowed scholarships. In addition, he established a $1 million bequest to the University that will be used to endow the Franklin St. John Chair in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. His long-term giving plans will also support Tech.