Gary Christman was raised in Meadow, SD and graduated from Lemmon High School. His sister and brother are also South Dakota Mines graduates.

During his 40-year career in the energy industry, Gary lived in five international and 10 domestic locations with his family. He joined Texas Instruments in 1974 in their Equipment Group. He then moved into the oil industry and joined Exxon Corporation in Oklahoma City.

Gary retired from BP in 2014 in Houston. He and his wife, Cymbre, retired to the Spearfish area in 2018. He is very active with Black Hills alumni activities. 

He started giving back to South Dakota Mines as a student, both in student government and as class president. He then served as vice president of his local alumni community in Houston for six years. As honorary alumni president, he hopes to help the university and CARA fulfill their missions.