IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2013 - 8

IN MEMORIAM

A Tribute to Walter Zessner
(1924-2012)

was very much saddened to learn that Walter
Zessner had died on December 13, 2012, after
a brief illness. Although we lived in different
countries, we shared so much of what was most
important to both of us - the impacts of advancing
technology on our common future.
I first met Walter at an IEEE Society for the Social
Implications of Technology Carnahan Conference held
at the University of Kentucky in 1985. The conference
papers were wide ranging and published in Volume 36
of The Virginia Journal of Science. The title of Walter's
paper was "A Proposal and Projection: Developing
a Model of Models." His close friend for many years,
Emeritus Professor of Physics at Ryerson University
in Toronto, Helmut Burkhardt, writes that "Walter
brought ISTAS '91 to Ryerson University in Toronto
and chaired the conference committee. The theme 'Preparing for a Sustainable Society' brought Gro Brundtland's concept of sustainability to IEEE one year before
The United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED), also known as Earth Summit, popularized the notion worldwide. Walter chose
Willem H. Vanderburg, University of Toronto author
of The Labryinth of Technology, and myself as program co-chairs, along with P. Brogden, H. Moore, and
W.S. Watson as members of the conference organizing
committee. Walter's contributed paper was "Social and
Technical Mismatches." The Proceedings of ISTAS'91
were edited by Burkhardt and Vanderburg and published by IEEE, Library of Congress number 92-71802.
Walter's insights were brilliant, as they stressed
the vital need for the dynamic balancing of polar
opposites. What came across in his many papers and
presentations was a love for life, for humanity, and a
concern that advancing technology is a double edged
sword; it gives, but in the very act of giving, takes
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2013.2247725
Date of publication: 14 March 2013

away. Focusing almost exclusively on the giving is a
prescription for an unsustainable future.
The range and depth of Walter's knowledge and
grasp was vast and deep. In a "P.S." reflection sent
to me in an email on April 27, 2009, he wrote of his
fear "that ISTAS [was being drawn too] deeply into
the IEEE mainstream for advancing most innovative
technologies that tend to neglect innovations for sustainable socio-techno interactions. Disregarded implications of singular directions [mirrors] the once most
advanced Stone Age culture on Easter Island leading
to Collapse (J. Diamond). To generalize, accelerating highly specialized developments can exemplify
what is meant [by] "societies fall from their own first
principles"(Hegel). Generically, outstanding tangible
achievements in over-extensions can turn into "progress traps," when seductively blinded [by] the rise
of conceptual barriers that shield overspecialization
[from recognizing] that "today's problems are yesterday's solutions" (Peter Senge). Alternatives are
excluded when separated from understanding a holistic and fuller knowledge spectrum. The search for a
new paradigm may call for integrating paradigmatic
divides [as means for overcoming ever more isolating] fragmentation. Means to discern boundaries that
threaten the loss of commonalities could enable [us]
to reach beyond the close-ended box for opening perspectives [to] options that can advance renewals."
Though Walter has passed on, his ceaseless efforts
at shining lights on both edges of the sword, and the
ever increasing need for dancing "goldilocks" solutions, forever in peril of falling into the opposing
traps of Sylla and Charbydis, will live on. He will be
sorely missed by his loving family, his wife, Gertrud,
son Michael, daughter-in-law Deborah Maw, grandchildren Sarah, Laura, Robert and Emily, by Helmut,
myself, Rose Dyson, and all who knew him in the
IEEE and beyond.
-Jeff Robbins
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SPRING 2013

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