[TCCM] FW: Professor Paul Lagacé (1957-2021)

Tue Jul 20 15:22:55 EDT 2021

Dear members of the Tech Catholic Community,

It is with a heavy heart that I share with you the news of the death of Professor Paul Lagacé (aeronautics & astronautics).  The below message from President Reif offers a glimpse into Professor Lagacé‘s life at MIT.  We are all grateful.

In addition, as many of you know, Professor Lagacé served the Tech Catholic Community.  He was a long time TCC Advisory Board member, including service as co-chair.  With that in mind, to the sadness of this moment we bring the consolation of our Catholic Faith knowing – as our funeral prayer reminds us - “that all the ties of love and affection that knit us together in this life do not unravel in death.”  That is the saving love of Jesus Christ for us all.  May that love and the promise of Christ’s resurrection bring hope and comfort to the entire MIT community at this time, but in a particular way to Professor Lagacé’s family.

We will keep Professor Lagacé in special prayer at our TCC Mass this Sunday.

Peace,

[signature_7795115]
Reverend Michael B. Medas, MSW
Catholic Chaplain
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
W11-012
40 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139

From: "L. Rafael Reif" <office-of-the-president at mit.edu>
Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2021 at 11:31 AM
To: Michael Medas <mmedas at mit.edu>
Subject: Professor Paul Lagacé (1957-2021)

Sharing the news of Professor Paul Lagacé’s passing

View online version<http://inj9.mjt.lu/nl2/inj9/mik57.html?m=AV0AAAZ3SPkAAcrqh7QAAM33RtoAAAAAGqoAJT7qAAiQzwBg9uw0reTk0haFShCBCyoNIlQubAAIIWc&b=e5dcb3e7&e=6adeaa48&x=BxebfQpBAp4-Ao1jz8sOYQ>

[Letterhead for MIT President L. Rafael Reif]

To the members of the MIT community,

I write with great sadness to let you know of the death last Friday of a longtime MIT faculty member, Paul Lagacé '78, SM '79, PhD '82, professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems. To Paul’s wife, Robin, and to his family and friends, I express our community’s deepest sympathy.

Raised in a close-knit French Canadian immigrant community in Lewiston, Maine, Paul arrived on campus in 1974 as a first-generation college student<http://inj9.mjt.lu/lnk/AV0AAAZ3SPkAAcrqh7QAAM33RtoAAAAAGqoAJT7qAAiQzwBg9uw0reTk0haFShCBCyoNIlQubAAIIWc/1/iRchjRnGxtNSL1xm82txzg/aHR0cHM6Ly9maXJzdHllYXIubWl0LmVkdS9yZXNvdXJjZXMtc3VwcG9ydC9maXJzdC1nZW5lcmF0aW9uLXByb2dyYW0vaS1hbS1maXJzdC1nZW5lcmF0aW9uL2ZncC1mYWN1bHR5LXRlYWNoaW5nLXN0YWZmLXN0b3JpZXMvcGF1bC1sYWdhY2U>, not knowing quite what to expect – and he found an education and a community that transformed him. After earning his bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees in AeroAstro, he joined the department’s faculty.

Paul’s research interests centered on understanding, improving and manufacturing the complex composite materials that make modern aeronautics possible; he also developed methodologies to help assess their application early in the design process. As director of the Technology Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Structures, he published widely, consulted to industry and was a past president of the International Committee on Composite Materials.

Paul loved teaching most of all, a devotion reflected in his selection as a 1995 MacVicar fellow, MIT’s highest award for teaching excellence. He also sought out ways to help students feel at home, from welcoming new students by confessing that as a first-year undergrad, he once scored 27 on a test, to working the grill, side by side with Robin over more than a decade, at an annual late-night pancakes event during exams, to his instrumental role in the launch of MIT’s First Generation Program<http://inj9.mjt.lu/lnk/AV0AAAZ3SPkAAcrqh7QAAM33RtoAAAAAGqoAJT7qAAiQzwBg9uw0reTk0haFShCBCyoNIlQubAAIIWc/2/HzP0xrEdK0IKungCNl98Jg/aHR0cHM6Ly9maXJzdHllYXIubWl0LmVkdS9maXJzdC15ZWFyLWFkdmlzaW5nLXByb2dyYW1zL2ZpcnN0LWdlbmVyYXRpb24tcHJvZ3JhbQ>.

You can read more about his life and work<http://inj9.mjt.lu/lnk/AV0AAAZ3SPkAAcrqh7QAAM33RtoAAAAAGqoAJT7qAAiQzwBg9uw0reTk0haFShCBCyoNIlQubAAIIWc/3/3N1rfKfssiI9t3jn1wmriQ/aHR0cHM6Ly9uZXdzLm1pdC5lZHUvMjAyMS9wYXVsLWxhZ2FjZS1wcm9mZXNzb3ItYWVyb25hdXRpY3MtYXN0cm9uYXV0aWNzLWRpZXMtNjMtMDcyMA>.

All of us who knew Paul remember how much he loved the MIT community, and he served it with distinction in a range of non-academic leadership roles. One highlight was his work co-organizing the 2011 Open House to celebrate MIT’s 150th anniversary, an enormously successful campus-wide event that drew 40,000 visitors to MIT. For more than 20 years, Paul also served – with his meticulous organization, commanding presence and cheerful showmanship – as faculty marshal for MIT Commencement; in his full regalia, he cut an unforgettable figure crossing Killian Court at the head of the faculty procession. With that same intense and dignified bearing, he also served as chief marshal at the memorial ceremony for slain MIT Police Officer Sean Collier and at my own 2012 inauguration as president.

Friends are invited to join Paul’s family at the Nichols Funeral Home in Wilmington for visiting hours on Friday, July 23, from 4-7 PM. As plans emerge to celebrate his life, the department will share them. You may also wish to honor his memory by making a donation to the Epilepsy Foundation or the Jimmy Fund. And there may be no better way to appreciate what Paul valued than to make your way to where he spent some of his happiest hours: in the centerfield bleachers for a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.

With sympathy,

L. Rafael Reif

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave | Cambridge, MA 02139

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