Robert E. Machol - Biography

Biography

Machol was raised in New York City, New York. After graduation from Harvard University in 1940 he enlisted in the United States Navy with the intention to become an aviator. Although he did not earn his pilot's wings, he emerged from World War II holding the rank of lieutenant commander.

Following the war Machol worked for the Operations Evaluation Group of the U.S. Navy Center for Naval Operations and then as editor for scientific articles for the Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia. In 1951, he was hired as the Technical Editor for the University of Michigan's Willow Run Laboratories (which later became the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan after the Laboratory separated from the University of Michigan). Willow Run was a research organization that was engaged in scientific and applied research in systems engineering, operations research, computer science, and electronics under contract to the Department of Defense. Its principal work, which involved looking for improved ways of defending the United States against air attack, led to the ground-breaking book, "Systems Engineering," co-authored with Harry H. Goode. By 1958 Machol obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Michigan and became an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering (later full Professor) at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana. In 1960 he moved back to Michigan as Vice President Systems of Conductron, a technology startup in an era when there were almost no such startups.

In 1964, Machol became chairman of the newly formed department of Systems Engineering at the University of Illinois, Chicago. From 1967 to 1986 he was a professor of systems at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University.

During this career, he also was a consultant to NASA, the Office of Naval Research, and the U.S. Department of Defense. After his retirement from Northwestern in 1987 he embarked on a second career as chief scientist for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) where he worked until 1996.

His early work as scientific editor led to his selection as chair of the Operations Research Society of America’s Publications Committee, and later as editor of a book series, Studies in Management Science and Systems, published by The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS).

Machol served as secretary, and later 1971 as president of the Operations Research Society of America and was honored with that organization's Kimball Medal in 1992. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world's premier aviation university, on whose Board of Directors he had served.

Quite beyond his professional achievements, he was widely considered one of the most colorful individuals that the Operations Research profession has ever produced. See, for example, the tribute titled "A Hero Is Nothing But Bob Machol."

At the time of his death in 1998, he was survived by his wife, Florence, a son and daughter, and four grandchildren.