Distinguished Engineer
Hometown: Pollock
Civil Engineering ,
James Dornbush earned an M.S. in sanitary engineering and public health in 1959 from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, in environmental engineering in 1962. He also served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1953. Dornbush served as an Instructor in Civil Engineering at South Dakota State College from 1949 to 1951, associated professor of civil engineering from 1957 to 1963 and professor of civil engineering from 1963 to 1990. He was a nationally recognized expert in waste water engineering, environmental engineering, water quality analysis and land treatment of wastes. Dornbush’s career included a stint with the Minnesota Department of Health from 1954 to 1956 as public health engineer and time as a sanitary engineer for the South Dakota Department of Health in 1957 to 1958. Dornbush was president of his own consulting firm, Dorand Engineering, Inc. from 1970 to 1990. In addition, he received many honors and awards during his tenure at SDSU including the National Science Foundation Award as a science faculty fellow, the Fuller Award from the American Water Works Association, the Bedell Award from the Water Pollution Control Federation and the Outstanding Civil Engineering Educator Awards for the South Dakota Eastern Branch. He also authored or co-authored nearly 40 publications. His wife Maxine Biggar Dornbush earned an associate’s degree in secretarial science from SDSU in 1973.