Legacy Awards, such as the Dr. William Wiley Award, the Dr. John Brooks Slaughter Award, and the Arlington Carter Award, have been presented in honor of the top winners of the BEYA STEM Conference since 2015.
In the summer of 2025, The Seattle Times published an obituary for Arlington W. Carter, affectionately known as Art. Born on March 13, 1933, he left a lasting legacy when he passed away on May 28, 2025. Carter was a trailblazer in the aerospace industry, recognized as the Black Engineer of the Year in 1990. At the time, he held the influential role of vice president and general manager of the Missile Systems Division at The Boeing Company, where he spent his entire career climbing the corporate ladder.
Starting his journey in 1961, Carter quickly made a name for himself in aviation and aerospace. His expertise in electrical engineering enabled him to hold several significant positions, including vice president of Boeing Aerospace and deputy manager of the Defense Systems Division. His responsibilities during his tenure spanned missile systems and support services for critical initiatives like the Strategic Defense Initiative. After retiring in 1998 as corporate vice president, Carter continued to be an active participant in civic life, serving on various boards. In recognition of his achievements, Illinois Tech honored him with the Alumni Medal posthumously in 2025, acknowledging his remarkable contributions to both education and engineering.
Meanwhile, the engineering community mourned the loss of another giant, John Brooks Slaughter, Ph.D., who passed away at home in Pasadena, California, on December 6, 2023, at the age of 89. Dr. Slaughter was honored in a historic moment on September 20, 2023, when the USC Viterbi School of Engineering renamed its Center for Engineering Diversity in his honor. This renaming was a fitting tribute to a man who devoted his life to promoting diversity in engineering education.
Dr. Slaughter has held various prestigious positions throughout his illustrious career. He was the Chancellor of the University of Maryland when he earned the Black Engineer of the Year award in 1987. In 1980, he took the reins at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1982. His early work involved leading a naval research team that laid the groundwork for computer control systems in naval weapons research, along with diving deep into underwater acoustics. By the late 1970s, he transitioned from engineering to higher education, overseeing crucial science programs and later becoming Chancellor of the University of Maryland in 1982.
Dr. Slaughter famously stated, “Certainly, with the advent of robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and automation, the jobs that are lost are the jobs that Black individuals more largely occupy; consequently, technology does have a distinctive impact on the Black community.”
This profound insight resonates even more today, echoing in light of the loss of approximately 300,000 long-term career Black women in the spring of 2025. The rise of automation and AI, compounded by job cuts in federal agencies—such as the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services—heavily represented by Black women, showcases the widespread impacts of technological advancement on marginalized communities.
Dr. William Wiley, another luminary in the engineering realm, was recognized as the Black Engineer of the Year in 1994. His dedication focused on ensuring technology benefits all people, which aligned with his extensive work in research, development, and technology commercialization at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory and Battelle’s Marine Sciences Laboratory. A proud graduate of Tougaloo College, Wiley furthered his education with a master’s degree in microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana, aided by a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship. He later earned a doctorate in bacteriology from Washington State University.
Wiley’s career path began at Battelle in 1965 as a research scientist, where he quickly demonstrated his capabilities. He ascended to the position of laboratory director by 1984, a role he maintained until 1994 when he became a corporate vice president. Wiley was not only a respected figure in the scientific community but also served on numerous civic and educational boards, including the Board of Trustees of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. His passing in July 1996 at the age of 64 marked the end of a life spent dedicating his time to the advancement of science and technology for society’s benefit.