David Stagney , a graduate student in aeronautics and astronautics and a member of the Leaders for Manufacturing Program (LFM) Class of 2003, received the third annual Charles "Harrison" Smith III Memorial Award. The prize commemorates a 1999 LFM graduate who died in a car crash en route to his new job at Dell Computer Corp. in Austin, Texas, days after he graduated from the program.
The award was created by a group of Smith's classmates. Because it is a peer award, each class has the opportunity to recognize someone they feel most improved the LFM experience. Along with a plaque, Stagney received a scholarship of $1,250.
Stagney's classmates, Smith's parents and sister, Smith's best friend, Rob Mosher (LFM 1999), and past recipients of the award (Terence Emmert and Micah Samuels) attended the ceremony.
Stagney, originally from Cleveland, most recently worked at Moog Inc. in Buffalo, N.Y. as a product engineer. He will now do his internship at Boeing in Los Angeles.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 5, 2002.
