The late Robert R. Asprey, former Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) employee and long-time supporter of New Mexico State University, was honored April 12, 2006, during a ceremony usually devoted to presenting awards named after him.

Asprey, who died Jan. 17, 2006, was an accomplished academic who earned an electrical engineering degree from NMSU in 1979, held numerous patents for computer technologies, was awarded an honorary doctorate from NMSU, and in 1998, along with his wife Joan Raabe-Asprey, endowed the Asprey Award, given quarterly to exceptional employees of ICT.

Legacy of Encouragement: The Bob Asprey Remembrance Ceremony was attended by about 50 ICT employees, several of them former Asprey Award winners, as well as this quarter’s two award winners, David Fraga and Michelle Guerra.

Fraga and Guerra earned the awards for their work on the Pinnacle system, the interface to the Oracle database where all ICT business transactions for voice, data and work orders are maintained. This is the second Asprey Award for both recipients. Fraga first received the Asprey Award in 1999 and Guerra received her first Asprey Award in 2001.

During the ceremony, friends and colleagues paid homage to Asprey and spoke fondly of him.

“Bob was special,” said Mike Wolf, former ICT director. “He always had a positive attitude.”

Asprey spent much of his life in Huntsville, Ala., where he co-founded Cybex Corp. with Regimitus Shatas. After merging with Apex Inc. they formed Avocent Corp. Asprey and Shatas later created RNR Ventures, which invests in technology based companies.

Patents held by Asprey include Split Computer Architecture, the Extended Communication Line for Keyboard and Display Units Remotely Located from a Computer and the Extended Length Differentially Driven Analog Video Link.