Posted on May 18, 2004 at 3:05 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) senior industrial distribution major Adam Yost has earned the first annual $10,000 Gary L. Buffington Memorial Scholarship from the Industrial Distribution Association (I.D.A.).

Yost, 26, son of Stephen and Janet Yost of Mobile, Alabama, is ranked as the top student in the UAB School of Business Industrial Distribution Program. Yost was a University of South Alabama Presidential Scholarship winner and attended the University at Badkrueznach in Germany as an exchange scholar. He will graduate from UAB in the summer of 2005.

Created in 2003 as a memorial to former I.D.A. Executive Vice President Gary Buffington, the scholarship will be awarded each year to a rising senior in a qualified undergraduate industrial distribution program. The recipient must share Buffington’s ideals of high educational performance, leadership and community service.

“Adam is an excellent choice as the inaugural recipient of this scholarship,” said Jay A. Smith, D.B.A., the Ben S. Weil Endowed Chair in UAB’s Industrial Distribution program. “I believe if Gary were still with us he would admire Adam’s respect for scholarship, dedication to improving the state of our industry, unselfish concern for others, appreciation of the global world, his search for opportunities to improve himself and success in meeting challenges to accomplish his goals.”

The I.D.A. Educational Foundation and members of Gary Buffington’s family will award the scholarship to Yost during the Opening General Session of the association’s Spring 2004 Industrial Supply Convention (ISCON) on Sunday, May 23, in Orlando.