Dennis Bryan grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota, in the 1950s. To bring in more money for his family, Bryan began working as a dishwasher at the age of 12, earning $0.50 a day. Yet, he discovered his lifelong passion not in the kitchen, but in the caves of the Black Hills. While cave crawling with his Boy Scout troop, Bryan fell in love with geology, marking the beginning of his journey to the South Dakota School of Mines, the Mackay School of Mines, and an exciting decades-long career in mining geology, culminating in his membership on the SME board of directors and the 2015-16 SME presidency. Working solo, as well as with his own Geotech firm, Bryan discovered and tested numerous deposits of lightweight aggregates, rhyolite, and lithium in the American Midwest that significantly improved the work of block plants and construction companies. The lithium clay he discovered in the McDermitt Caldera with Western Uranium in the 2000s is set to go into production soon. He played a role in the MX Project in the 80s, the Tonopah Test Range, and the Salt River Freeway project. He compiled his industry knowledge in SME’s publication, Industrial Minerals and Rocks, as a co-author. He is the recipient of the Hal Williams Hardinge Award, the Dreyer Award, and the AGC Award, among many others. However, his proudest achievements are the discoveries he has made and the mines he helped put into production. Bryan’s devotion to mining has had such a profound impact on the industry that the full extent of his influence may never be fully known.