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IEEE Life Fellow Theodore W. “Ted” Hissey died on 14 October on the age of 97.
An energetic volunteer whose involvement with IEEE spanned greater than six a long time, Hissey served as IEEE director emeritus from 1994 to 1996. In 1997 he was vp of the IEEE Foundation.
Extra just lately, he targeted on facilitating partnerships and establishing joint awards with different technical societies in IEEE Areas 8, 9, and 10. However in a 2014 interview with The Institute, Hissey mentioned his actual ardour was organizing outreach occasions for college kids and mentoring new volunteers by way of IEEE Young Professionals.
“I search out and mentor bold younger professionals and encourage them to hunt higher-level positions inside IEEE to convey their contemporary and revolutionary concepts into the group,” he mentioned.
To honor his mentoring actions inside IEEE YP, in 2017 the IEEE Theodore W. Hissey Outstanding Young Professional Award was established. It acknowledges younger engineers for contributions to the technical group and IEEE’s fields of curiosity.
“Theodore Hissey was the kindest and most empowering soul,” Eddie Custovic says. The IEEE senior member acquired the 2022 IEEE Theodore W. Hissey Excellent Younger Skilled Award.
“His encouragement and assist is one thing that helped me tremendously in my early profession,” Custovic provides. “Receiving the 2022 IEEE award that bears his identify is the best spotlight of my skilled profession. His legacy and what it means to be a selfless chief, will proceed to serve our international IEEE group as exemplary. He won’t ever be forgotten. Relaxation in peace Uncle Ted.”
A jet-setting profession
After receiving his bachelor’s diploma in energy engineering in 1948 from Pennsylvania State University in College Park, Hissey joined Leeds and Northrup (L&N) in Philadelphia as an functions engineer. The corporate made electrical measurement devices and management and energy methods. He labored there for 43 years, serving in a wide range of engineering and administration positions.
Whereas at L&N, Hissey joined plenty of technical and requirements committees and helped set up IEEE conferences. His work took him to greater than 50 nations, and he befriended many engineers across the globe.
These contacts helped Hissey and L&N tackle a number of worldwide initiatives resembling organising telemetry methods for Aramco, a nationwide oil and pure gasoline firm in Saudi Arabia. He hung out in Brazil serving to engineers there develop and stabilize the facility grid.
Later he was a principal engineer at Macro Corp., an engineering consultancy agency primarily based in Horsham, Pa.
Within the 2014 interview, Hissey credited a few of his profession achievements to his involvement with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers—one in every of IEEE’s predecessor societies—and later IEEE.
“Organizing and attending international conferences, networking with engineers, and gaining access to the most recent technical analysis actually helped me sustain as {hardware} and software program advanced,” he mentioned. “IEEE paved a street for me all through my working life.”
Giving again and guiding others
Hissey’s involvement with IEEE could be traced to the late Forties, when he chaired Penn State’s scholar AIEE chapter.
He grew to become a member of the IEEE Power & Energy Society governing board in 1973, and he served as society’s 1985–1986 president.
Towards the top of his profession, he was on the IEEE Board of Administrators, and he was director of IEEE Division VII (Power and Energy Engineering). He additionally served on a number of committees in addition to the Regional Actions (now Member and Geographic Actions), Requirements, and Technical Actions boards.
He served as IEEE treasurer within the early Nineties. In 1994 he was appointed performing IEEE govt director.
Hissey loved sharing his knowledge with the following technology. “I inform younger folks they’re in a distinct world at this time than after I began out within the late Forties,” he instructed The Institute in 2014. “In these days, corporations had been extra supportive of their staff; their skilled growth was a precedence. Now younger professionals usually should study these abilities on their very own.”
Via his mentorship, “Uncle Ted” helped many volunteers really feel as if they didn’t should go it alone.
“Ted’s assist of [students and young professionals] was excellent,” says Francisco Martinez, 2021 president of the IEEE Basis. “He motivated them not solely to enhance their skilled abilities but additionally to proceed their involvement with IEEE.”
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