T S Ary was a leader in mineral exploration and a champion of economically and environmentally sustainable mineral policies for the nation. A mining engineering graduate from Stanford University with graduate studies in mineral law, land management, international studies, and business, Ary served as a navy carrier pilot in World War II before starting his professional career in 1951 with the Anaconda Mining Company in Butte, Montana. He was a shift boss and assistant superintendent at several mines before moving into Anaconda’s Geology Department.
He joined Union Carbide Corporation in 1953 as a mining engineer and superintendent of a vanadium mine in Rifle, Colorado and named Vice President of Union Carbide Exploration Corporation in 1967. In 1975, he joined Utah International, Inc. as Vice President of Exploration and Director of Development. He was appointed President of Kerr-McGee Corporation's Minerals Exploration Division in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in1980. While at Kerr-McGee, he was responsible for worldwide hard mineral and coal exploration, as well as land acquisition and management functions of all operating divisions except oil and gas.
A prolific author and advocate for the mining industry, Ary was a recognized authority on mineral policy. He served on the U.S. State Department Task Force to the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention and the Mineral Advisory Committee to the Department of Commerce. He chaired both the Minerals Availability Committee of the American Mining Congress and the Natural Resources Committee of the National Association of Manufacturers. He served four years on the National Strategic Materials and Minerals Program Advisory Committee to the Secretary of the Interior. He also served as Director of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Chairman of the Colorado Plateau Section of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, and Director of the Colorado Public Expenditures Council. He was recognized for his leadership in the industry through receipt of the AIME Robert Earl McConnell Award in 1993 and the SME President's Citation in 1992.
In 1988, Ary was sworn in as the 18th Director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, serving under Presidents Reagan and Bush. Under his leadership, the Bureau of Mines advanced a number of technologies that contributed to the advancement of the industry: self-rescue equipment that allowed miners to breathe when caught in underground disasters; production processes for specialty metals; techniques to recover strategic and critical minerals to reduce U.S. vulnerability to import blockages; construction of manmade wetlands to limit pollution of waterways by acid mine drainage; methods to minimize subsidence impacts; improved recycling of metals, plastic and paper from municipal wastes; and the use of bacteria to remove arsenic and cyanide from waste waters.
