Guy T. McBride

McBride argued several times before leading state legislators to more funding of education. The Denver Post praised his ability to "...(ramrod) a major expansion despite inadequate state funds." He was also quoted as saying in 1984, "What we're trying to produce is the ability (among students) to think critically and be able to take the problem apart and put it back together. That is deceptively hard." According to the Post, the honors program came about because of his belief that "...engineers should be literate in public policy and social issues as well as engineering." An article describing CSM's innovative approach to engineering education quoted President McBride as saying, We expose our students to stress deliberately to toughen them for the real world. We produce a graduate that really doesn't know there is anything he can't do.

After stepping down from the presidency in 1984, McBride continued living in Golden and teaching courses at CSM. He also served on boards of directors for several corporations, such as Hercules, Halliburton and Kerr-McGee.

In 1948, he joined the Rice University (then named Rice Institute) in Houston, Texas, as an associate professor of chemical engineering. By 1950 he had also become Dean of Students, while still teaching. He replaced the late Dean H. H. Cameron, who had died on June 28, 1950. In 1958, he left academia to work for Texas Gulf Sulphur Company. (TGS) as vice president and general manager of its Phosphate Division. He left TGS in 1970 to accept an appointment as the president of the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) in Golden, Colorado.

McBride worked in both industry and academia, although he said that he preferred teaching. He first taught at Rice University from 1948 to 1954. Then he worked as an executive for Texas Gulf Sulphur Company until he was appointed president of Colorado School of Mines in 1970. He retired as president in 1984, but continued to teach chemical engineering courses. He died in 2011.

After his graduation from MIT in 1948, McBride first went to work as an engineer for Standard Oil Company (now Exxon Mobil). A few years later, he became a consultant for Texas Gulf Sulphur Company.

Guy McBride married Rebeckah Bush on September 2, 1942. His wife, Becky, died in 1998. They had three children, two daughters and one son. One daughter, Rebeckah Ann, died in 2004. In 1999, he married Cordelia Rush, who survived him. There were no children from the second marriage.

Guy Thornton McBride (December 12, 1919 – March 21, 2011) was an American chemical engineer who was a professor at Rice University, president of the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) and as an executive of a major American corporation. McBride earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas (UT) in 1940, where he was valedictorian, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in 1948.

Guy McBride was born December 12, 1919 in Austin, Texas. The censuses of 1920, 1930 and 1940 indicate his parents were Guy T. and Imogene (nee Thrasher) McBride, Sr. The family lived in Wharton, Texas through those years. Guy also had a younger brother. After graduating from high school, Guy enrolled in the University of Texas, majoring in chemical engineering. He graduated from UT with the degree of Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering and was valedictorian of his class of 1940. He enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he earned master and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering.