On 27 May 2016, just a few days after I finished my first editorial, which appears in the same issue of this journal, I received very sad news: George Klir – the founding editor of this journal – passed away earlier that day. This was emotionally painful news to me since George and I had been very close for the past 17 years. It was also very unexpected and shocking news. We had just finished a large book, written jointly by the two of us and Joseph Dauben, on the history of fuzzy logic, on which we had been working for the past four years or so. During this period, George and I had spent a lot of time together – he was always full of energy, well spirited, and with many plans for the future. Just a couple of days before his death, we had our usual correspondence regarding proofreading of the book and the work to be done. George simply left us without any warning providing thus a bitter proof of a fact, in a sense characteristic of his research work, that nothing is certain in this world.
George J. Klir was born on 22 April 1932, in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He obtained his MS degree in electrical engineering from the Czech Technical University in Prague in 1957 and his PhD degree in computer science from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1964. He began his professional career at the Computer Research Institute in Prague in 1957. After immigrating to the United States in 1966, he was a lecturer at UCLA and an associate professor at the Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ. From 1969 until his retirement in 2007, he was with SUNY Binghamton where he obtained the rank of distinguished professor in 1984, and served as chairman of the Department of Systems Science (1978–1992) and director of the Center for Intelligent Systems (1994–2000). He also worked part-time for IBM, Sandia Laboratories, Bell Laboratories, and the Canadian Government, and taught summer courses at the University of Colorado, Portland State University, and Rutgers University. During the academic years 1975–1976 and 1982–1983 he was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, and in 1980 a fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
George was a brilliant scholar who had an unusually broad spectrum of interests. He left a lasting mark in every area in which he worked. During the earlier stages of his career, he conducted research in the areas of systems modelling and simulation, logic design, and computer architecture. Later on his research included, in particular, not only generalized information theory, fuzzy logic and fuzzy sets, and generalized measures, but also a variety of other topics such as the psychology of concepts or certain aspects in philosophy of science. He wrote over 300 research papers, holds a number of patents, and authored or co-authored 20 books, among them Cybernetic Modelling (Van Nostrand, 1967), Introduction to the Methodology of Switching Circuits (Van Nostrand, 1972), Architecture of Systems Problem Solving (Plenum Press, 1985), Fuzzy Sets, Uncertainty, and Information (Prentice Hall, 1988), Facets of Systems Science (Plenum Press, 1991), Fuzzy Measure Theory (Plenum Press, 1992), Fuzzy Sets and Fuzzy Logic: Theory and Applications (Prentice Hall, 1995), Uncertainty-Based Information (Springer-Verlag, 1998), Fuzzy Sets: An Overview of Fundamentals, Applications, and Personal Views (Beijing Normal University Press, 2000), Uncertainty and Information (John Wiley, 2006), which received the “Book of the Year Award” from the International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics in Baden-Baden, Germany, and Fuzzy Logic and Mathematics: A Historical Perspective (Oxford University Press, in print). Some of George's books and papers have been translated into foreign languages (Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Polish, and Czech). At SUNY Binghamton, he supervised 34 completed doctoral dissertations and taught graduate courses on fuzzy systems, generalized information theory, systems problem-solving, discrete mathematics, logic design and computer architecture, fault-tolerant computing, automata theory, introduction to systems science, and combinatorial analysis.
George’s organizational activities were extraordinary and demonstrated his leadership. He founded the International Journal of General Systems in 1974 and continued as its editor-in-chief until 2014. He was also editor of the International Book Series on Systems Science and Engineering, published by Springer and sponsored by the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR) since 1985, and served as a member of the editorial board for 19 journals. He was president of the Society for General Systems Research from 1981 to 1982, the first president of the IFSR from 1980 to 1984, president of the North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society (NAFIPS) from 1988 to 1991, and president of the International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA) from 1993 to 1995.
For his outstanding contributions, George received numerous awards, including six honorary doctoral degrees, the Medal of Bernard Bolzano in mathematical sciences, the Kaufmann’s Gold Medal Prize for excellence in uncertainty research, Lotfi A. Zadeh Best Paper Award, SUNY Chancellor’s Award for excellence in research, Distinguished Leadership Award from the International Society for the Systems Sciences, Award from the Netherlands Society for Systems Research for advancing general systems research, Award from the Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies for outstanding contributions to cybernetics, and Award from the Society for Computing Anticipatory Systems for outstanding scientific work on anticipatory and intelligent systems. He was a Life Fellow of IEEE, Life Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, and Fellow of IFSA. George’s research has been supported by grants from the NSF, ONR, Air Force, NASA, NATO, the Canadian Government, Sandia Laboratories, and some industries.
George was both a gentleman and a scholar who was devoted to his students and the academic community. He epitomized humility. People who met George will remember him as an intelligent and very kind person who enjoyed every aspect of life. For many, he was a model and mentor for professional conduct. He will be greatly missed and never forgotten.
George Klir is survived by his wife Milena and their daughter Jane.
Editor-in-Chief
Notes
1 A shorter obituary, partly based on the present obituary, appeared in Press & Sun-Bulletin on 19 June 2016.