Arthur David Hall III (April 13, 1925 – March 31, 2006) was an American electrical engineer and a pioneer in the field of systems engineering. He was the author of a widely used engineering textbook ''A Methodology for Systems Engineering'' from 1962.

Early life

Hall was born on April 13, 1924, in Lynchburg, Virginia. He attended Brookville High School. He served in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

during World War II. After the war he studied electrical engineering at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, graduating in 1949.

Career

He started his career as electrical engineer for

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial Research and development, research and scientific developm ...

, where he worked for many years. In the 1950s he started his own

consulting A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...

business, and in the 1960s, Hall was faculty member at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He is known as the author of a widely used engineering textbook ''A Methodology for Systems Engineering'' from 1962. Hall was a founding member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. In 1965, Hall was the first editor of the IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics. Hall later became a senior IEEE fellow. He made contributions to systems engineering methodology, and applications to telecommunications policy and practice. Hall is listed in ''Who's Who Men of Science'' as the father of the "picture telephone", and creator of the patented "Auto Farm System", which provides global positioning equipment for

precision farming Precision agriculture (PA) is a farming management strategy based on observing, measuring and responding to temporal and spatial variability to improve agricultural production sustainability. It is used in both crop and livestock production. P ...

. His further hobbies included flying,

yachting Yachting is the use of recreational boats and ships called ''yachts'' for racing or cruising. Yachts are distinguished from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose. "Yacht" derives from the Dutch word '' jacht'' ("hunt"). With sailboats, ...

, photography, and gardening.

Later life

He died on March 31, 2006, in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Publications

Hall wrote several textbooks and articles on systems and systems engineering. Books: * 1962, ''A Methodology for Systems Engineering''. * 1989, ''Metasystems Methodology'', Oxford, England: Pergamon Press. Articles, a selection: * 1956, "Definition of System", with Robert E. Fagen, in: ''General Systems'', 1 (1956), p. 18. * 1965, "Systems Engineering from an Engineering Viewpoint" in: IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics, Nov. 1965, Volume: 1, Issue: 1. On page(s): 4-8 * 1969, "Three-Dimensional Morphology of Systems Engineering", in: IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics. 5(2) pp. 156–160. * 1975, "Who Is Afraid of Systems Methodology?", in: ''IEEE: Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society Newsletter'' 4, 1 (March 1975) pp. 1–3. * 1989, "The fractal architecture of the systems engineering method", in: ''Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part C: Applications and Reviews'', IEEE Transactions on Volume 28, Issue 4, Nov 1998 Page(s):565 - 572.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Arthur David 1925 births 2006 deaths People from Fredericksburg, Virginia American systems scientists Systems engineers Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty Fellow Members of the IEEE Scientists from Virginia