The Ross W. Lampe Family of Smithfield has pledged $1 million to create the Lampe Family Endowed Professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering at N.C. State University. Ross W. Lampe Jr., president of SMD Software Inc., is a 1977 NCSU graduate who received his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering. He earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His father, Ross W. Lampe Sr., president of Guy C. Lee Manufacturing Company, is also a graduate of NCSU, having received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1951. Ross Sr. is the son of Dr. J. Harold Lampe, who served as dean of the College of Engineering from 1945 to 1962 and was pivotal in the early planning of Research Triangle Park. The endowed professorship is the second gift from the family, which also created the J. Harold Lampe Engineering Excellence Fund in 1993 in memory of J. Harold Lampe, which is an endowment providing unrestricted support for the college.