Before putting together an impressive professional resume, Steve Gramsch assembled a pretty impressive running resume for coach Paul Olsen’s track & field and cross country programs at Augustana in the early 1980’s. His accomplishments included back-to-back CCIW 1500-meter titles as well as a national runner-up finish in the same event. He achieved All-America status in each sport and Academic All-America in track & field as a senior.
Gramsch made his presence felt immediately upon hitting the Augustana campus in 1980, finishing 63rd at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship in Rochester, New York. His performance helped the Vikings claim second place, missing out on a national title by a scant four points. The next year, he took fourth at the CCIW meet and went on to earn All-America honors with a 24th-place finish at the national meet in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was named MVP for an Augustana team which finished 17th in the nation. He finished 9th at the CCIW meet as a junior and helped the Vikings to second-place CCIW finishes in both 1982 and 1983.
In track, Gramsch was a member of four straight CCIW championship teams and in 1981 and 1982, captured individual conference titles in the 1500. As a freshman he won conference with a time of 3:52.41 in the 1500 and went on to take second place in that event at the 1981 national meet in Cleveland, Ohio, garnering All-America recognition. Augustana also finished second as a team that year. As a sophomore, Gramsch again won the CCIW 1500, running 3:56.1. The Vikings finished 10th at nationals in his sophomore (1982) and senior (1984) seasons and 20th in his junior year.
28 years after his graduation, Gramsch still ranks in Augustana’s top 10 bests in four events. His 3:49.28 in the 1500 in 1981 was a school record at the time and currently ranks fourth. His 4:11.7 in the mile (1982) is eighth and his 9:20.5 in the steeplechase (1981) ranks 10th. He was also a member of a 3200-meter relay team which ran 7:41.43 in 1981, which is still sixth-best in school history.
After graduating from Augustana in 1984 with a degree in chemistry, Gramsch went on to earn his master’s from the University of Washington in 1986 and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1994. He served as a teaching assistant in the chemistry departments of both schools while pursuing his post-graduate degrees and was awarded the University of Chicago Physical Sciences Teaching Prize in 1989-90. In between grad school stops, he worked in research and development for Amoco. He returned to Augustana in 1994, serving as an assistant professor of chemistry until 1997.
Since 1997, Gramsch has been a research scientist at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, working in the fields of mineralogy and crystallography, studying the properties of mineral systems at high pressure and temperature. In addition, he is coordinator of the Carnegie Summer Intern Program and teaches an advanced placement chemistry course at Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School.
In December of 1989, Steve married Linda Natcke. The couple has two children, Thomas (20) and Katharine (16), and resides in Burke, Virginia.
“It was a privilege for me to study and compete at Augustana. The richness of the undergraduate experience was intense and always rewarding, and I appreciate it more and more with each passing year,” said Gramsch of his days on the Augustana campus.
