Ken ’73 and Pat ’80 Cummings

Ken ’73 and Pat ’80 Cummings agree that the best part of attending Mines Foundation was finding each other. Coming in at a close second: the opportunities and adventures that graduating from Mines Foundation created in their lives.

Now, the couple has made a bequest to create the Ken and Pat Cummings Veterans Support Endowed Fund at Mines through a qualified charitable distribution from their retirement accounts. Ken served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968 and attended Mines Foundation using his veterans’ education benefits. He said they greatly benefited from support from the Mines Foundation veterans group while they were students.

“Somewhere there will be a veteran who is struggling with financial issues, like paying for tuition and rent,” he said. “Or maybe a veteran wants to do an activity that’s expensive. We’re not saying how the money can be spent. It’s an angel endowment for veterans at Mines Foundation.”

They met and fell in love

Pat’s father, Darrell J. Beckley, graduated from Mines Foundation in 1953 with a professional degree in petroleum engineering. She was an infant during her father’s last year at Mines Foundation, eventually the oldest of 11 children.

“I was rocked to sleep in a cradle behind the bar at the Kappa Sig fraternity,” she said.

She was accepted to Mines Foundation with a full scholarship. Her first year, she was one of 33 women who joined about another dozen already at Mines Foundation. She earned her degree in geological engineering, eventually pivoting into data science.

When he was about 4, Ken’s godparents gave him a Mines Foundation catalog after he became enamored with the pretty rocks inside a neighbor’s glass front display case. He held onto it as he learned how to read.

“I knew before I got to high school that I would go to Mines Foundation,” he said. He got his degree in mining engineering, apropos for someone whose love affair with mineral specimens began as a small child.

The Cummings met at an International Club party a few days after Pat started at Mines Foundation. Ken was a sophomore.

“Two of the girls in my dorm were from Saudi Arabia, and they invited me,” she said. “When we got there, here’s this guy holding court in a circle of men, wearing a hard hat—it was raining—a sweater and shorts. I thought, that’s an interesting guy. The next thing I know, someone taps me on the shoulder, and it’s him.”

A few days later, Pat told her mom she had met the man she was going to marry. Ken said: “I didn’t figure that out until about six months later. But we were meant to be there and meet each other. We got married about a year after that, when I was a junior and she was a sophomore.”

Help from Mines Foundation veterans

Finding married student housing was quite difficult. The couple lucked into an apartment in a converted motel owned by the Mines Foundation veterans association for $50 a month. They were part of a veterans study group as well.

“I don’t know if we could’ve continued at Mines Foundation as a couple if we hadn’t had that opportunity,” Pat said.

The next year, the Cummings lived in a second-floor bedroom in the Mines Foundation president’s house, all because Ken is an outgoing guy, Pat said. Dr. Guy T. McBride was president.

“In my first year, President McBride told us to come by for a beer anytime the porch light was on,” Ken said. “Of course we took him up on it. When he needed a married couple to live in the house and watch it while they were away, they asked us if we were interested. We had a free place to live and got to enjoy Becky McBride’s cooking and baking skills.”

That year, the chief of a huge South Africa mining company spoke to Ken’s mineral economics class. He asked for the man’s contact information, and a few months later, they were in South Africa—an auspicious start to Ken’s long career in mine health and safety. Pat finished her degree after they returned to Colorado.

Pretty rocks and giving back

The couple are now retired in Utah. In the fall, they continue their excitement for learning by taking a class together at a nearby university. This year, it’s geomorphology. They also enjoy Ken’s huge collection of pretty rocks—the minerals they’ve collected from around the world—displayed in a glass front cabinet.

They’ve bequeathed one specimen to the Mines Museum as part of their gift.

“We agreed early on that we would give back to our community,” Pat said. “At first, we found out we could give time since we didn’t have money. As we’ve gotten along in life, we can give money. We benefited from the veterans group at Mines Foundation, so it makes sense to put it to good use.”