diff --git a/contrib/MeshOptimizer/MeshOptCommon.cpp b/contrib/MeshOptimizer/MeshOptCommon.cpp
index b1d2391a77f0a23f4cae1fbb8e94969827e5788e..9d9c840496b929ca452e909891b0b751d067356a 100644
--- a/contrib/MeshOptimizer/MeshOptCommon.cpp
+++ b/contrib/MeshOptimizer/MeshOptCommon.cpp
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@
 #include "MeshOptCommon.h"
 
 
+const double MeshOptResults::BIGVAL = 1.e300;
+
+
 MeshOptResults::MeshOptResults() :
   success(-1), CPU(0.), minNodeDisp(BIGVAL), maxNodeDisp(-BIGVAL),
   minScaledJac(BIGVAL), maxScaledJac(-BIGVAL), minMetricMin(BIGVAL),
diff --git a/contrib/MeshOptimizer/MeshOptCommon.h b/contrib/MeshOptimizer/MeshOptCommon.h
index b57db04592c10bc544acbd347a9c9e0db04e3727..87736d4f8b748576f022aead842d7c4cf3e7c3bf 100644
--- a/contrib/MeshOptimizer/MeshOptCommon.h
+++ b/contrib/MeshOptimizer/MeshOptCommon.h
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ struct MeshOptResults {                             // Output of mesh optimizati
   double minMetricMin, maxMetricMin;                // Range of min. of metric
   MeshOptResults();
 private:
-  static const double BIGVAL = 1.e300;
+  static const double BIGVAL;
 };