Systems, Man & Cybernetics - January 2015 - 41

In Memoriam

Andrew P. Sage, Jr.,
an SMCS Pioneer

t is with great sadness that the
IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (SMCS) announces
the passing of Dr. Andrew P. Sage,
Jr. on 31 October 2014. Dr. Sage was
a pioneering founding father of the
Society, who served as president from
1984 to 1985. He served on the seminal committee that created the IEEE
SMCS. Among his accomplishments
at the Huazhong University of Science
was serving as editor-in-chief (EIC) of
and Technology, China, in 1995.
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man,
In 1976, Dr. Sage was elected IEEE
and Cybernetics for 27 years, from
Fellow "for contribu1972 through 1998.
tions to engineering
Born in Charleston,
education and to the
South Carolina, Dr.
theor y of systems,
Sage received his B.A.
identification, estimadegree in 1955 from
tion, and control." He
the Citadel, the Milireceived the first Nortary College of South
bert Wiener Award as
Carolina, his M.A. dewell as the first Joseph
gree in 1956 from the
G. Wohl Outstanding
Massachusetts InstiCareer Award from
tute of Technology,
Dr. andrew P. Sage, Jr.
the IEEE SMCS. In
and his Ph.D. degree
1994, he received the IEEE Donald
in 1960 from Purdue University, all in
G. Fink Prize.
electrical engineering.
He was an elected fellow of the
He was an editor of the InternaAmerican Association for the Adtional Federation of Automatic Convancement of Science (AAAS) and the
trol (IFAC) journal Automatica for
INCOSE. He received the Outstanding
16 years, from 1981 to 1996. He was
Service Award from IFAC, the Frederinstrumental in creating the Internaick Emmonds Terman Award from the
tional Council on Systems EngineerAmerican Society for Engineering Eding (INCOSE) Wiley journal Systems
ucation, an IFAC Outstanding Service
Engineering and the IOS Press journal
Award, and a Superior Public Service
Information Knowledge Systems ManAward for his service on the CNA Coragement. He wrote or edited more than
poration Board of Trustees from the
20 books and was the editor of the WiU.S. Secretary of the Navy. In 2000, he
ley Series in Systems Engineering and
received the prestigious IEEE Simon
Management textbooks (see "Books by
Ramo Medal in recognition of his conAndy Sage").
tributions to systems engineering and
He received honorary doctor of enthe IEEE Third Millennium Medal. In
gineering degrees from the University
2002, he received the Eta Kappa Nu
of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, in 1987
Eminent Membership Award and the
and from Dalhousie University in 1997.
INCOSE Pioneer Award, with the citaHe was elected an honorary professor
tion "Prof. Sage has made continued
and substantial contributions to the
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSMC.2014.2386057
field of systems engineering for more
Date of publication: 24 April 2015
Ja nu a r y 2015

than 35 years." In 2007, he was elected
as a charter member of the Omega
Alpha systems engineering honor society. He was elected to the National
Academy of Engineering in 2004 for
contributions to the theory and practice of systems engineering and systems management.
Centennial medals were awarded
to Dr. Sage by the Case Western Reserve University in 1981, the IEEE in
1984, and the ASEE in 1993. He received the Washington Society of Engineers Award and the Distinguished
Service Award from the National
Capital Area Council of the IEEE in
1996. He was chair of Section M (engineering) of the AAAS in 1990 and
was involved in other professional
service activities.
In 1984, he was appointed the First
American Bank Professor of Information Technology and Engineering
at George Mason University and the
first dean of the School of Information
Technology and Engineering. In May
1996, he was elected as Founding Dean
Emeritus of the Volgenau School and
also became a university professor. At
George Mason, he launched a vision of
an engineering school that would be
multidisciplinary and established the
first Ph.D. degree program in information technology (IT) in the nation.
Dr. Sage began his academic
career in the early 1960s as an associate professor at the University
of Arizona, where he conducted research on the electronic simulation

IEEE SyStEmS, man, & CybErnEtICS magazInE

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