May 2, 2023, YANKTON, SD — Denis Fokken and Tim Semple, two Mount Marty University (MMU) alumni, will return to campus to deliver the undergraduate and graduate commencement addresses after earning degrees from the Catholic, Benedictine University 50 years ago.
Fokken was working at a meatpacking plant when he decided to go back to college. "I got connected with a local CPA firm and when I graduated, they hired me," a job that would unknowingly lead him to his 41-year career with First Dakota National Bank.
Likewise, the moment Tim Semple received his diploma, he became one of the first two students to receive their Bachelor of Science in Anesthesia and one of the first two nurse anesthetists in the nation. "We didn't really realize the impact at the time," he said of MMU being the first educational institute to offer such a program. "I had this degree that nobody else had."
Semple's interest in Obstetric Anesthesia brought him all over the US to leadership roles at hospitals in Nebraska, California, Indiana, and Maryland before his retirement in 2017.
Both Fokken and Semple look back on their time in Yankton with deep gratitude for their Benedictine education and the faculty and staff who impacted the trajectory of their careers.
While the two have lived vastly different lives since 1973, both are compelled to use the time they have with this year's graduates to share experiences, insights, and advice but also to pay tribute to what makes Mount Marty so special: the Benedictine values and the faculty and staff living them out.
"Mount Marty's mission is a mission of humility and service, and we have to go out and think of how we can best serve our world and represent this Benedictine ideal," Semple says. "Because Saint Benedict was not just a monk off in the corner."
MMU in Yankton celebrates commencement on Saturday, May 6. The undergraduate ceremony is at 10 a.m. and the graduate ceremony is at 1 p.m. in Cimpl Arena. Program and live stream details can be found at mountmarty.edu.
"The point I want to make is that opportunities, they're not guaranteed but they do come along," says Fokken. "Be who you are and live your life for who you are with the values that you've got."
About Denis Fokken
Denis Fokken received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting from MMU in 1973 and later became MMU's first business graduate to become a certified public accountant. In 1977, he received the Alumni Merit Award and became a charter member and director of the MMU Booster Club, now known as the Lancer Club. Fokken was the first person to be inducted into the MMU Business Hall of Fame in 1995. In 2017, Fokken became a member of the MMU Annual Giving Committee and is a long-time member of the President's Society, the University's premiere giving club. Also in 2017, he and his wife, Mary Beth, established the Denis and Mary Beth Fokken Family Endowment at Mount Marty to benefit elementary education and accounting students. In November of 2001, Fokken was first elected to Mount Marty's Board of Trustees and, since that time, has served as an elected member, treasurer, and two years as chair of the board. Since the beginning of his career, he has been a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the South Dakota CPA Society. He served in the South Dakota Air National Guard from 1969 to 1975 and is a member of Sacred Heart parish in Yankton. For more than a decade, Fokken has been a United States Golf Association Rules Official and a USGA Regional Affairs Committee member. Fokken spends his retirement by traveling, golfing and staying active on both the Mount Marty Board of Trustees and the First Dakota National Bank Board of Directors.
About Timothy Semple
Timothy D. Semple has more than 50 years of experience in the healthcare industry. He served in the United States Navy Reserve before heading to St. Luke's School of Nursing in Sioux City, IA, and graduating in 1971. That fall Tim came to MMU as one of the first two students in the Bachelor of Science in Anesthesia program. His first job out of school was at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lincoln, NE, where he became Director of Nurse Anesthesia. In 1989, he joined a group of five CRNAs who covered a group of small hospitals in Eastern Nebraska. This is where he discovered his love for Obstetric (OB) Anesthesia and went to Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento, CA, in 1992 on an interim assignment. Two years later, Tim and his wife, Sheri, moved to Indianapolis, IN where he took a position in the OB Anesthesia Department at Community Hospitals of Indianapolis, a CRNA-managed OB practice. He was the OB Anesthesia Manager of one of three OB sites in the system. In 2001, he was promoted to Chief CRNA of OB Anesthesia Services. In 2005, Tim left for an opening at St. Mary's Hospital in Leonardtown, Maryland. Twelve years later, he retired and earned his CompTIA IT Certification. He now enjoys building custom PCs and providing computer services for friends and family, serving with his wife on the Coffee Cafe staff and WARM Project, which provides short-term shelter and meals for the homeless through churches throughout Southern Maryland. Tim is an affiliate volunteer with the Maryland American Civil Liberties Union Foundation. Both he and his wife are charter members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
