In 1970, engineers at the Climax Molybdenum Mine near Leadville, Colorado, sought additional training to prepare for the Colorado Professional Engineer examination. They turned to Frank Stermole, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines, and asked him to teach a course at the mine.

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That winter, Frank made the drive every weekend from Golden to Leadville with his wife and three young children. While his family enjoyed skiing via a rope tow, Frank taught engineers on Saturday mornings from 8 a.m. until noon, laying the groundwork for a course that would shape the trajectory of his career and ultimately lead to the founding of Investment Evaluations.

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Through his teaching and work as an expert witness in project valuation across various industries, Frank recognized significant gaps in traditional engineering economics education. Existing textbooks emphasized the time value of money and basic investment calculations but offered limited guidance on three essential considerations in real-world investment decisions: risk adjustment, inflation and the distinction between escalated and constant dollars, and after-tax economic evaluation.

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Recognizing the need for a more comprehensive, practical approach, Frank developed Economic Evaluation and Investment Decision Methods, a course designed to help industry professionals make better investment decisions. Following his work with the Climax Mine, he mailed a brochure advertising the course, and the response was immediate: his initial offering filled three courses.

Encouraged by the success of what became known as the “Stermole Course”, Frank set out to write a textbook that would bring these concepts together in one resource. Balancing his responsibilities as a professor with a growing family, he usually found the necessary time and solitude to write from midnight until six in the morning. The first edition of Economic Evaluation and Investment Decision Methods was published in 1974.

With Investment Evaluations Corporation, Frank established a company dedicated to providing practical economic evaluation education and consulting to industry professionals. What began as a Saturday morning course at a Colorado mine has grown into a multigenerational family business. Frank's son, John Stermole, began working alongside him in the 1980s, followed by John’s son-in-law, Andrew Pederson, who joined the company in 2010. Their contributions have helped carry forward Frank's work through continued development of the course and textbook, now in its 17th edition. Today, Investment Evaluations continues Frank's original mission: bridging the gap between economic theory with comprehensive and practical investment decision-making.