Seismic Gifts Advance the Geosciences

Smith proposed to his wife, Evonne, in the parking lot of the Des Moines airport as she was returning to her job in Denver after Iowa State’s 1968 homecoming celebration. She said “yes” and the two Iowa State graduates have been practically joined at the hip ever since.

Tom, who has bachelor’s (1968) and master’s (1971) degrees in geology from Iowa State and a doctorate in geophysics from the University of Houston; and Evonne, who has a bachelor’s degree in home economics (1968), have contributed $370,000 toward renovation of the university’s Carl F. Vondra Geology Field Station near Shell, Wyo.

This gift by the Smiths of Houston, Texas, goes a long way toward improvement of the facilities Tom credits with inspiring his passion for the geological sciences.

“The field camp experience was a fundamental turning point in establishing in my mind that geology was the profession that I wanted as my life’s work,” Tom says. “It is absolutely critical for any geologist to go to a field camp and have that experience. To look over the rocks and to get into your mind what it must look like under the subsurface is critically important.”

It was that geological expertise that spurred the growth of Tom and Evonne’s entrepreneurial company, Seismic Micro-Technology, Inc. (SMT). In the 1980s, they created the business to develop a software product that helps geologists and geophysicists interpret data in the computer, make maps and decide where to drill.

“There were ups and downs in the oil industry back then,” says Evonne, “but we were flexible enough that we could move the office into our home. The industry had really collapsed in Houston and people vacated their homes, their debt, everything. So I began teaching and Tom worked in the back bedroom.”

Sticking it out proved to be the right decision. Today, SMT software is in more than 80 countries with 7,200 users. When Tom and Evonne sold their business recently, the company had 150 employees with offices in Houston, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Austria.

A few years ago, SMT donated $451,000 in software to Iowa State and made similar contributions to other colleges around the world. “We’re from Iowa,” says Tom. “We grew up with some fundamental ideas, and one of those is the importance of giving back. We’ve been fortunate to have some success in business, and when you give, you discover that you get back more than you give.”

The Smiths hope their gifts will help establish Iowa State’s Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences as a world-class center of learning in the geological sciences. “And we hope the field camp will attract students from many other universities — not to be used just by geologists, but by other departments as well, like environmental engineering, astronomy or English for writing workshops,” says Tom. “It’s a wonderful retreat.

“There is no more worthy cause than to give to a university,” he says. “You know it’s handled in the right way because it’s a university, and the benefits go to the students. You’re helping the young people as well as the industry to which you want to contribute. What better place to give than to Iowa State?”