HAROLD LINSTONE

LINSTONE--Harold A.,

editor-in-chief of the professional journal Technological Forecasting and Social Change and University Professor Emeritus of Systems Science at Portland State University died, age 92 on July 8, 2016 in Pasadena, California. He was a beloved husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather, great- grandfather, teacher and friend. Born in Hamburg, Germany, he came to New York in 1936. He received a B.S degree from C.C.N.Y, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in mathematics from Columbia and University of Southern California respectively. Dr. Linstone's twenty-two years of industry experience included positions at Hughes Aircraft, the RAND Corporation, and Lockheed, where he was Associate Director of Corporate Planning -- Systems Analysis. From 1970 to 1977 Dr. Linstone served as founding director of the Portland State University Systems Science Ph.D. program. His extensive experience in both corporate planning and academe made him recognize the need to bridge the gap between analysis and modeling on the one hand and real world action on the other. It led him to the Multiple Perspective Concept: a complex system is viewed from at least three perspectives - the technical or analytic, the organizational, and the personal. Together they provide a more holistic view of the system that has proven to be of significant benefit in decision making. Dr. Linstone had been a Visiting Professor at the University of Rome, the University of Washington, and Kiel University. In 2003 he received the World Future Society's Distinguished Service Award. Harold Linstone founded the journal Technological Forecasting and Social Change in 1969, and it is now in its 47th year. He is the author or co-author of the books The Delphi Method (1975), Futures Research: New Directions (1976), Technological Substitution (1977), Multiple Perspectives for Decision Making (1984), The Unbound Mind: Breaking the Chains of Traditional Business Thinking (1993), The Challenge of the 21st Century (1994), and Decision Making for Technology Executives: Using Multiple Perspectives to Improve Performance (1999).