In 1929, the Board of Directors of CSMAA established an award to be given to those persons "who have rendered distinguished service to the Association and/or the School of Mines." The award was to be an Honorary Membership in the Alumni Association. Various other requirements were made at that time, such as: moral character and in good standing professionally, should be able to be present in person to receive this honor, and the recipient need not be a graduate of the School of Mines.

The award has had an intriguing history. For example, none were granted for a fourteen-year period, 1940-1954. On the other hand, eight were awarded in 1968. This is considerable variance over the years, with numbers of awards varying widely and, apparently, criteria for the awards becoming somewhat different as new Boards and committees came and went.

With the increasing participation of alumni in the affairs of the Association and School, the Board of Directors of the Association felt that new and more definitive guidelines needed to be established. The committees appointed by the Board of Directors would then have a clearer idea of the qualifications necessary for receipt of the very special award. The concerned alumni were given the responsibility to research the history of the awards, communicate with the Board of Directors of CSMAA, and make recommendations for changes or modifications in the original mandate. These three were Ed Brook, E.M. (’23), Walter Dumke, MSc. Chem (’29), and Neal Harr, Geol.E. (’54).

The committee appointed met in May of 1977 to discuss the problem, with emphasis being given to historical background, present status of the award, and future planning for its presentation. Their research turned up some interesting statistics: a total of 92 of these awards has been made since 1929, of the recipients, 56 are still living, 32 of the total number were alumni.

In addition to the numbers, the committee reviewed the rationale for each award and concluded that in general the awards were given deservedly, that the awardees were well worthy of the honor conferred upon them. By far, the greater number were faculty members. Presidents, trustees, financial donors, commencement speakers, and those who had served well the interests of the Association over a long period of time made the mix.