Jack E. Steele (January 27, 1924 – January 19, 2009) was an American medical doctor and retired

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

, most widely known for coining the word bionics.

Biography

Steele was born Jack Ellwood Steele in

Lacon, Illinois Lacon is a city in, and the county seat of, Marshall County, Illinois, United States. It is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,937 at the 2010 census, down from 1,979 in 2000. History Lacon was named ...

. He attended Mendota Township High School (Mendota, Ill), then went on to study general engineering at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

and the

Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...

. He served in the

US 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, cla ...

from 1943 to 1946, who put him through pre-med at

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

in 1944. He received his M.D. from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

in 1950. He spent a year there as Research and Teaching Fellow in Neuro-anatomy before joining the US Air Force in 1951 where he served until retirement in 1971. He initially served as Ward Officer of

Psychiatry Psychiatry is the specialty (medicine), medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psych ...

and

Neurology Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...

until he joined 6570th

Aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astr ...

Medical Research Lab in 1953. There he investigated stress effects of motions, sound and wind blast, but his main focus was on bionics, a term he coined in 1958. The term was officially used in 1960 as the title of a three-day symposium in September of that year. His work on bionics, and the USAF research on

cyborgs A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

, caught the attention of SF writer and aviation expert

Martin Caidin Martin Caidin (September 14, 1927 – March 24, 1997) was an American author, screenwriter, and an authority on aeronautics and aviation. Caidin began writing fiction in 1957. In his career he authored more than 50 fiction and nonfiction books ...

, whose 1972 book ''

Cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

'' makes explicit reference to then-Major Jack Steele. The book formed the basis of the TV series ''

The Six Million Dollar Man ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' is an American science fiction and action television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors. After a NASA test flight accident, Austin is re ...

'' (and spinoff ''

The Bionic Woman ''The Bionic Woman'' is an American science fiction action-adventure television series created by Kenneth Johnson based on the 1972 novel ''Cyborg'' by Martin Caidin, starring Lindsay Wagner that aired from January 14, 1976, to May 13, 1978. ' ...

''), which popularized, if somewhat inaccurately, the term bionics. (Steele's original meaning was the study of biological organisms to find solutions to engineering problems, a field now also known as biomimetics.) After retiring from the Air Force, Steele continued to practice medicine with a focus on psychiatry, and served as Medical Director of the Comprehensive Drug Dependency Treatment Program at the Dayton Mental Health Center, where he worked for 20 years until retirement. Steele died in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...

on 19 January 2009 after a protracted illness.

References

* ''The Cyborg Handbook'', Routledge, New York 1995, ed. Chris Gray * ''From Biotechnology to Genomes: The Meaning of the Double Helix'', World Scientific Publishing Co, New York, 2001, Phillippe Goujon (see footnote 78, page 47) * Bionics Symposium - Living Prototypes - the key to new technology, 13–15 September 1960, Wadd Technical Report 60-600 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Steele, Jack E. 1924 births United States Air Force Medical Corps officers 2009 deaths People from Lacon, Illinois Illinois Institute of Technology alumni Feinberg School of Medicine alumni Military personnel from Illinois