Randolph Howard Pherson

1949 - 2024

Pherson

Randolph Howard Pherson

March 4, 1949 â€" January 11, 2024

Randolph Howard Pherson, 74, passed away on January 11, 2024 at his home in Great Falls, Virginia, after a courageous battle with VEXAS, a rare inflammatory syndrome identified in 2020. Randy was the co-founder of Pherson Associates, which he started with his wife, Katherine Hibbs Pherson, to develop and share best practices in analytic thinking based on what they had learned and practiced during their careers at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).



Randy was best known in the international intelligence community for his thought leadership and development of Structured Analytic Techniques (SATs), a term coined by his wife to describe a set of qualitative methods to help analysts mitigate bias while framing complex issues and diagnosing possible outcomes. He was the author of 13 books on analytic thinking and presentation and sought multiple ways to share his insights through classes, presentations, and dozens of articles, particularly enjoying teaching and mentoring students across the globe.



Applying analytic thinking to his own medical issues, Randy used SATs to enable a last-minute cardiac procedure that saved his life in 2014 and chronicled the story in How to Get the Right Diagnosis: 16 Tips for Navigating the Medical System. Despite this success, he soon began experiencing a confusing array of symptoms that would not be diagnosed as VEXAS until 8 years later.



Randy Pherson was born on March 4, 1949, in Washington, DC to John R. Pherson and Annabel S. Pherson. He received an A.B. from Dartmouth College and an M.A. in International Relations from Yale University. A recipient of the Intelligence Community's Distinguished Intelligence Medal and CIA's Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, he was serving as the National Intelligence Officer (NIO) for Latin America when he took early retirement in 2000. He guided development of Pherson Associates' government work as President from 2003-2021 and served as CEO of Globalytica, a subsidiary of Pherson specializing in classes and publications for international and private industry clients.



He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Katherine Hibbs Pherson; son Richard; daughter Amanda (Michael Pedersen); dear friend Dr. Janet Baker; and many loving family members, those he mentored and with whom he collaborated, and his fellow runners in the Great Falls Hash House Harriers. A celebration of Randy's life will be held on February 2, 2024, at 1 p.m. at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens' Atrium in Vienna, Virginia. At the time of his death, he was working with his closest medical advisers to establish a non-profit to support and educate medical providers, patients, and the public about VEXAS and other rare autoinflammatory diseases. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the VEXAS Global Foundation (www.vexasglobal.org).