Father Geek here with a note from "Katy" about the passing of an unknown Star Trek STAR...

OK, so Mr. Jeffries wasn't a household name like the rest of the people who worked on Trek TOS, but dammit! not even the LATimes has expended a few column inches on his passing... here's the Space.com link and story:

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_030724.html To Boldly Go ... Matt Jeffries: 1921 - 2003

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Matt Jeffries, the man who designed the fictional Starship Enterprise for the original television series "Star Trek", passed away Monday at the age of 82.

With its saucer-shaped primary hull, separate engineering section and twin warp nacelles, the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701, has become one of the most recognizable icons of the space age.

Jeffries came up with the ship design for "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry during the mid 1960s. The design evolved as the original show gave way to a string of movies and four new television series.

"Matt was a gentle soul. He has put his stamp on everything we have done since his brilliant, classic Enterprise," Herman Zimmerman, production designer for the current series "Enterprise," said in a statement posted on the official Star Trek web site.

References to Jeffries' contribution continues in almost every episode and movie as the engineering tunnels that run inside each starship are called "Jeffries Tubes" by the characters.

Often considered the true star of the show, the original Starship Enterprise and the series it represented was so popular that following a mail and phone campaign by fans NASA named the prototype shuttle Enterprise after the ship Jeffries designed.

...and here's the AP story (which I got from the horribe SFGate.com / San Francisco Chronicle)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/07/25/obituary0725EDT0063.DTL

Creator of original 'Star Trek' starship dies

Friday, July 25, 2003 17:55 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) --

Matt Jefferies, a film and television art director who created the original "Star Trek" starship Enterprise, has died at age 82.

Jefferies had been ailing and died of a heart attack Monday at Sherman Oaks Hospital, said his brother, John Jefferies.

Matt Jefferies worked as a set designer for films in the late 1950s including "Bombers B-52" starring Natalie Wood and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. He served as art director for TV shows such as "The Untouchables," "Little House on the Prairie" and "Dallas."

"Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry had Jefferies design the Enterprise before the series debuted in 1966, and Jefferies remained with the iconic science fiction show for many years.

Jefferies earned the Bronze Star as a flight engineer and co-pilot on B-17 bombers during World War II. He had a lifelong interest in aviation and spent holidays and weekends at an apartment he built in a hangar at the small Santa Paula Airport.

A memorial and Mass was scheduled for Aug. 2 in North Hollywood.

Thanks, Katy