1968 AAE Distinguished Engineering Alumnus

Lester W. Smith

General Manager, Ross Engineering Division
Midland-Ross Corporation
BSAE ’48, MSE ’50, PhD ’52

He joined the Combustion Engineering Corporation in 1952 and began working with a group analyzing the nuclear reactor and steam generating system for the submarine Sea Wolf. In 1954 he recommended design criteria for a reactor vessel in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, and later, as assistant chief engineer, he had complete responsibility for stress and thermal analysis of the Enrico Fermi Reactor Vessel at Monroe, Michigan. He was manager of engineering, surface combustion division, from 1962 to 1967, and became assistant general manager in September 1967. He was then promoted to his present position.