Systems, Man & Cybernetics - October 2016 - 24

Tribute

A Tribute
to Bill Gruver

he "In Memoriam" column in
the April 2016 issue of IEEE
Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Magazine paid tribute to the life
and accomplishments of Dr. William
(Bill) Almer Gruver. Gruver retired
as professor emeritus of engineering
science at Simon Fraser University
(SFU) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where he taught and
conducted research in the Intelligent
and Distributed Enterprise Automation (iDEA) Laboratory. He held numerous positions in industry with
companies such as DLR Space Research Center, LTI Robotic Systems,
General Electric, and IRT Corporation. His academic positions included
assistant professor at North Carolina
State University as well as director at
the Center for Robotics and Manufacturing Systems at the University of
Kentucky. IEEE Systems, Man, and
Cybernetics Magazine would like to
salute Gruver through the following
recollections by friends, colleagues,
and associates.
Gruver's Contributions to
the Technical Committee
on Distributed Intelligent
Systems
Bill made many significant and lasting contributions to the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSMC.2016.2598384
Date of publication: 18 October 2016

(SMCS). He held numerous leadership
roles including Society president and
director of IEEE Division X, and he
served many times in other officer positions: as an SMCS Board of Governors member, as an SMCS representative in a variety of capacities, and as a
popular SMCS Distinguished Lecturer. He was very active as an associate
editor of IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, and he
played a significant role in organizing
the IEEE International Conference
on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics,
serving as the general chair in 1995
and 2014.
He also worked behind the scenes
and played a critical role in developing and improving the Society website as chair of the SMCS Electronic
Communications Subcommittee. In
that role, Bill helped to establish and
maintain consistent layouts for all of
the Society's Technical Committee
(TC) webpages. He offered a sharp
attention to detail and commitment
to quality, and he encouraged and appreciated the same when exhibited by
fellow members of the Society.
Bill will be remembered for his
technical contributions. He was an
IEEE Fellow and a 2013 recipient of
the Norbert Wiener Award, which is
given by the IEEE SMCS to recognize
significant contributions to research in
systems science and engineering, human-machine systems, and/or cybernetics. Bill's citation for this prestigious

IEEE SyStEmS, man, & CybErnEtICS magazInE October 2016

Society award is "for significant international contributions to the research
and practice of robotics and intelligent
manufacturing systems (IMS)." He was
also an entrepreneur in those fields and
an exemplar for SMCS in his systems
perspective on robotics and intelligent
manufacturing problems.
Bill was a pleasure to work with
and a joy to be around. He enriched
the quality and scope of the systems
science and engineering technical
area, one of the three principal technical activity areas of the SMCS. He
also strongly supported professional
interactions with other systems engineering organizations in his role as a
SMCS representative to the IEEE Systems Council and as a proponent of
collaborations with the International
Council on Systems Engineering on
topics of mutual interest. His active
and consistent contributions will be
missed but certainly not forgotten.
We would like to take this opportunity to point out Bill's important contributions to the systems science and
engineering technical area through
his role as a cochair for the TC on Distributed Intelligent Systems (DIS). We
have asked his cochairs to say some
words about Gruver's contributions to
the TC on DIS.
Rodney G. Roberts
Vice President for Systems
Science and Engineering
Edward Tunstel
Vice President for Systems
Science and Engineering
(2010-2014)
A Great Supporter
of Everything New
I knew Bill from the joint activities
in the Holonic Manufacturing Systems (HMS) Consortium within the
frame of the IMS initiative since 1998.
He was one of the key promoters of

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Systems, Man & Cybernetics - October 2016