Contact: Phil Hearn
STARKVILLE--A Mississippi State aerospace engineering major from Hoover, Ala., is receiving the first $1,000 scholarship established in honor of a 1996 university graduate who died unexpectedly at age 31.
Sophomore Glenn W. Torres recently was awarded the Darwyn L. Ausbon Jr. Memorial Scholarship, which is being presented annually to a worthy aerospace engineering major. The scholarship is made possible by an endowment established by Kristen Ausbon of Upland, Calif., widow of the scholarship's namesake.
A Columbus native, Ausbon earned an aerospace engineering degree at MSU in December 1996 and immediately went to work for Bell Helicopter, which has operations in California, Maryland and Texas. He died in November 2004 from a ruptured artery complicated by an influenza virus.
"Darwyn used his competitive spirit to inspire others rather than to defeat them," said George Hicks of Savannah, Ga., a fellow MSU classmate and Ausbon roommate.
"He had the unique ability to make the lives of others better," added Hicks, now an employee of Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.
Phil Bridges, a research professor at MSU's Raspet Flight Research Laboratory, remembered Ausbon as a "bright, enthusiastic student who loved flying."
The son of Mark and Katherine Torres, Glenn Torres is active in student engineering organizations and Alpha Tau Omega social fraternity. He aspires to become a cooperative work student for Savannah-based Gulfstream Aerospace and pursue a career at that company upon graduation from Mississippi State.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, contact Heather Rowe at 662-325-5935 or hrowe@bagley.msstate.edu.