John Nelson Warfield, 83, died Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009.
His family will receive friends from 1-2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, at Morrison Funeral Home, Tuscumbia, with the funeral service following in the funeral home chapel. Michael Dale Boston will officiate. Burial will be in Oakwood Cemetery, Sheffield.
Dr. Warfield was born in 1925 and grew up in Missouri. He was university professor emeritus and laureate from George Mason University, in Fairfax, Va., where he spent his last 16 of 41 years of university faculty service. While at GMU, he was affiliated with what is now known as the School of Public Policy. In addition, he had about 10 years of industrial experience. Dr. Warfield was president of Integrative Sciences and AJAR Publishing Co.
He began his studies at the University of Missouri, but World War II interrupted. After basic training in the U.S. Army Infantry, the Army put him in an electrical engineering program.
After the war, he completed his original undergraduate program at the University of Missouri and continued on to get advanced degrees. Between 1948-49, he acquired his B.A. in mathematics, his B.S. in electrical engineering and his M.S. in electrical engineering. In 1952, he received his Ph.D. from Purdue University, majoring in electrical communications.
He is the author of two U.S. patents on electronic equipment and is the inventor of Interpretive Structural Modeling, Interactive Management, Generic Design Science and the Complexicon, a comprehensive institution for resolving complexity. He is a fellow of the International Society for Design and Process Science.
He is the sole author of several books, co-author of another and co-translator of a classic German work on communication networks. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 papers. He was in demand as a speaker and collaborator outside the U.S., where his research contributions are well known.
He served as elected president of the Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society of the Institute of Electrical Engineers and was a Life Fellow. He served as elected president of the Society for General Systems Research (later renamed the International Society of Systems Sciences).
He served as editor of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics for four years. He served nine years as founding editor of the journal, Systems Research (now Systems Research and Behavioral Science). He was awarded the IEEE Third Millennium Medal and the IEEE Centennial Medal.
Dr. Warfield is survived by his wife, Rosamond Warfield, of Sheffield; sons, Daniel Lawrence Warfield and wife, Samantha, of Bentonville, Ark., Thomas Edward Warfield and wife, Monica, of Atlantic City, N.J.; daughter, Nancy Rose Warfield Gray and husband, David, of San Francisco, Calif.; brother, George Daniel Warfield, of St. Louis, Mo.; sister, Flora Margaret Warfield Boston, of Sheffield; four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Pallbearers will be Josh Edwards, David Edwards, John Boston, Dylan Boston, Brad Lenz and deacons from York Terrace Baptist Church in Sheffield.
In lieu of flowers, please send memorials to the American Cancer Society.
Morrison Funeral Home, of Tuscumbia, is directing.
This obituary was originally published in the Florence Times Daily.