In the obituary for Donald Larson in the fall 2012 edition, it was such a pleasure to see that he had won the Robert Lesage award from the Rocky Mountain Lift Association in 2008. I know a little bit about Robert Lesage because he was my father, and also a Mines graduate with an EM degree in 1948.
As was learned in 1976 with the Vail Gondola accident, safety can never be assumed and is never an accident. The ski industry is a critical economic engine for Colorado. The RMLA is a critical and unsung hero that ensures the skiers’ safety on their way up the mountain. Engineers from Mines, let alone any other engineering college, do not typically find their way into the ski lift industry and ski lift engineering. These two truly were engineers of a thousand years. �William Lesage ’79
Ed.: After reading this email from William Lesage, we were curious to learn a little more about his father,�read about him here.
