A ‘blink of an eye’ in geologic time: UND marks Leonard Hall’s 60th birthday
HHSGGE community converges at Leonard Hall to celebrate a landmark — and the people who made it home
Sixty years to the day after its doors first opened, Leonard Hall got the birthday party it deserved.
On Oct. 8, students, faculty, staff and alumni of the Harold Hamm School of Geology & Geological Engineering gathered for the Leonard Hall 60th Birthday Party — beginning, fittingly, in the building’s iconic Lecture Bowl, where its opening ceremony was held.
North Dakota State Geologist Ed Murphy opened the program with a fast-moving tour of Leonard Hall’s hidden-in-plain-sight details.
“It is amazing, the thought that went into this building,” Murphy said, noting design touches that many pass daily without noticing. “I probably walked past these capstones thousands of times and didn’t realize that each one was different for each entrance.” He added with a smile, “I tell people all the time: I love Leonard Hall. And what you really love is the people in there.”
Joining Murphy in sharing the history of Leonard Hall was John Nimmer, a 1966 geology alumnus who remembered the excitement of geology’s big move to Leonard Hall.
“In the fall of 1965, my geology classes were moved to the brand new Leonard Hall. To say that taking classes in Leonard Hall was quite an improvement over Babcock Hall was a vast understatement,” he said.
Nimmer reminded the crowd that the building’s impact goes far beyond its walls. “While a building provides the faculty and students with a great setting in which to take classes, it’s really the interaction of the students and the faculty that makes a great geology program,” he said.
After returning to campus in September to watch his grandson play for the Fighting Hawks during the Potato Bowl, Nimmer visited his alma mater. “My recent campus visit demonstrated to me that Leonard Hall was still a great place to take geology classes. Yes, it may now be 60 years old, but in geologic time, that’s a mere blink of the eye.”
Following the presentations, the celebration moved next door to dinner and — of course, birthday cake — in the Tom & Carolyn Hamilton Atrium. Guests recreated a historical photo of a circle of people gathered around the Triceratops skull in Leonard Hall’s first-floor exhibit. They also explored displays featuring original items from the 1965 opening, including take-home copies of the historical ceremony program.
A building that wears its fieldwork
Named for Arthur Gray Leonard, UND’s first state geologist and a driving force behind the University’s early geology program, Leonard Hall is both classroom and museum — a place where an extensive rock and mineral collection, laboratories, classrooms and a library quietly showcase the professions it promotes.
Located on the building’s top floor is the F.D. Holland Geology Library; however, when the building was new, it was the North Dakota State Geological Survey Library. A large part of the original collection was accumulated through an exchange agreement between the Survey and many other state surveys and entities, which ensured that publications were widely available at the time.
If you ever visit the geology library in Leonard Hall, it’s worth doing a double-take at some of the shelving, whose limestone slabs hold their own history as original shelving from the Carnegie building from 1907. Darin Buri, the library’s manager, has made it his mission to preserve remnants of UND’s past.
“The faculty and students were very proud of their new building,” explains Buri. “The building committee ensured that there was a set of blueprints preserved with notations indicating changes and additions.”
Today, those same walls and shelves continue to hold more than books and specimens — they hold memories. Sixty years after its dedication, Leonard Hall remains what it has always been: a place where curiosity, discovery, and community converge.
Written by Paige Prekker // UND College of Engineering & Mines
