Oral Histories

Tom Falkie was born into the mining industry; he grew up in a Pennsylvania mining town and is descended from a family line of coal miners from Italy and Lithuania. Falkie earned a scholarship from the Reading Anthracite Company to study mining engineering and received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Penn State. A pioneer in computer application operations research in mine planning, Falkie became a professor and the Head of the Mineral Engineering Management programs at Penn. Falkie was appointed by President Nixon to serve as director of the US Bureau of Mines and went on to be President and CEO of Berwind Natural Resources Corp. Throughout his career, Falkie had to navigate the mining industry changes, and he helped advise on the changing global business environment. Falkie is an active member of AIME and SME and is a Past President and Distinguished Member of SME.