Prominent structural engineer and professor Stanley D. Lindsey has been called a genius, an innovator and an inspiration. He died on July 12 of a massive heart attack on his horse farm in Bluffton, S.C. He was 75.

Not long after starting his eponymous firm in Nashville, Tenn., in 1966, Lindsey became known as a pioneer in the use of computers for the analysis and design of structures. Stanley D. Lindsey and Associates Ltd., which for years wrote most of its own software, was one of the first engineers to integrate computer-aided design with drafting.

Lindsey was one of the developers of the "load and resistance factor" design method, introduced in the mid-1980s (ENR 11/9/89 p. 58). His volunteer work with the American Institute of Steel Construction, especially as a former AISC committee chairman on specifications, is still considered an important contribution to engineering. "Stan Lindsey was a gentleman, innovator and leader," says Charlie Carter, AISC's vice president and chief structural engineer. "An eternal optimist, he usually added a trademark smiley face next to his signature, with a squiggle to mimic his curly hair."

Lindsey received a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of Tennessee in 1961, as well as a master's degree in 1966 and a doctorate in 1972, both from Vanderbilt University. In 2002, he sold his majority stake in his firm and started a career teaching at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Savannah. "Stan never quit working," says Thomas S. Tarpy Jr., president of Lindsey's former firm, who began working full time at the now 30-person company in 1974. "Three weeks ago, he called me to talk about developing an online simulator for interactive distance learning."