Dr. Ernest B. Paxson (Ernie) of Vernal, Utah, passed away on March 29, 2012. Ernie was one of the four founding members of MZA Associates Corporation. As a well-respected mechanical engineer, Ernie provided structural modeling and opto-mechanical expertise on a number of early MZA projects. He sold his interest in MZA and moved to Vernal, Utah in 1996. Bob Praus, President of MZA, said "I had worked with Ernie very early in my career. He developed a large Nastran model of a space-based-laser telescope and helped to integrate the optical effects of structural vibrations into the Wavefront Control System Simulation (WCSS). Ernie was very exacting in his work and provided me with an appreciation of the care one must take when integrating complex interactions into a large simulation. At the time MZA was started, Ernie had already had a successful business, Paxson Engineering Services. He provided me with inspiration and motivation as an example of an independent analyst who had struck out on his own. His expertise and guidance in the early days of MZA were crucial to getting a good start in a field dominated by large companies."

Ernie's obituary can be viewed on the Vernal Express newspaper's online resources.