Don Montgomery     BS ChE ’74, Missouri University of Science & Technology   MBA ’79, St Louis University

Upon graduation from UMR in 1974, Don Montgomery started working for Monsanto as a Process Design Engineer in the Corporate Engineering Department.  Don worked in several process design positions and then accepted an assignment in the plant engineering group at Monsanto’s East St. Louis Illinois plant.   Here Don worked in support of the manufacturing operation to assist in the startup of several major expansions.

While working these positions, Don was attending graduate school at night.  In 1979 Don received an MBA from St. Louis University with a concentration area in Finance.   This led to the opportunity to take assignments in the IT and accounting areas. 

For 27 years Don thought he would be a “one hit wonder” working his whole career for one company but then corporate changes led to a spin off to Solutia where he was assigned to work in the Product Safety area of Environmental Safety and Health Department.   When financial problems befell Solutia, Don wound up being sold off, first to UCB of Belgium and then Cytec Industries of New Jersey.  Here he worked in the Hazard Communication area where he attained subject matter expert status in the SAP R3 software.  He also changed working venue as he began to work from his home office long before Covid-19 made that practice fashionable.   When the corporate reorganization bug struck again, Don moved to the consulting firm of ChemAdvisor Inc in Pittsburgh in the capacity of Hazard Communication Group Leader. 

Don retired from ChemAdvisor in 2014 after a career that spanned nearly 40 years.  He has been a lifelong resident of St. Louis but has traveled extensively, both nationally and internationally.  He has been married for 47 years to his lovely wife Sue and has two children and two grandchildren.  In retirement, Don plays golf regularly, and he and Sue enjoy traveling and spoiling the grandkids.