Rasmussen, Kiewit fund Durham School classroom additions

UNL’s Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction has new classroom and learning support spaces, thanks to donations from Jim D. and Faye D. Rasmussen and the Kiewit Infrastructure Group.

In Nebraska Hall, the new large classroom has seating for 36, plus a ceiling-mounted document camera and audio-visual equipment with video outputs on two screens. Another classroom has table seating for 20 and A/V equipment for distance learning. A study area has five tables and individual computer display monitors at each table, plus two whiteboard partitions. A meeting room has table seating for eight, with perimeter seating for eight more.

During planning, Associate Professor Paul Harmon, with DSAEC’s Construction Management program, reached out to Doug Glaser: a former student who’s now an executive with Kiewit’s Infrastructure Group. Glaser involved a colleague, Chris Loeffler, also a CM alumnus. Glaser and Loeffler then requested the Kiewit Foundation to support this Durham School renovation.

The University of Nebraska Foundation engaged a civil engineering alumnus, Jim Rasmussen, to fulfill the renovation project goals. Rasmussen and his wife, Faye (a Kearney native who learned nursing in Nebraska) also funded a Durham School Student Activities and Leadership Development Fund, endowed for construction management and construction engineering, and the Rasmussen Durham School Fund for Excellence (unrestricted, endowed for construction management and construction engineering). The couple’s giving also includes the Rasmussen Nursing Education Fellowship Fund.

Jim Rasmussen, who earned a 1967 B.S. in Civil Engineering, grew up on a farm north of Ravenna and started college in Kearney. Transferring to the larger Lincoln campus was daunting, but he knew he wanted to study engineering. He worked 25 years for Kiewit, including in Canada, where he and Faye adopted their two children.

Doug Glaser ’91 CM, is senior vice president for Kiewit Infrastructure South Co., and has more than 20 years of construction experience with Kiewit. He oversees district operations in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. In both 2010 and 2011, he led the South Central District to become Kiewit’s top-performing district, winning the Director’s Award of Excellence for the company.

Chris Loeffler ’91 CM, is senior vice president with Kiewit Infrastructure Group and executive vice president with the Peter Kiewit Infrastructure Co. He currently maintains executive oversight for all Kiewit operations in eastern Canada, including three mega projects in progress with a combined contract value of over $3 billion. His district is comprised of 750 staff and nearly 2,000 craft with revenue of approximately $600 million.