Willard Russell Fey

Willard was born on June 29, 1935 in Cincinnati, Ohio. In high school he was an athlete and scholar. He was a member of the basketball and track teams and set several school records in the hurdles. One of his math teachers took a particular interest in supporting his mathematical gifts and encouraged him to attend MIT where he completed his undergraduate and graduate work. He was one of the founding members of the Industrial Dynamics Group that developed the System Dynamics (SD) methodology used in Systems Engineering while he was a graduate student in the Sloan School of Management at MIT. He directed and implemented the first SD study of a real human system; and directed the first undergraduate program for students majoring in SD for which he received MIT’s prestigious Everett Moore Baker Award in 1966. His training at MIT was in electrical engineering, economics, management science, psychology, and systems. He left MIT in 1969 and joined the newly created School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he remained a professor for 30 years. There he supervised hundreds of one/two-student course project studies, 5-student-group Senior Design studies for Atlanta businesses, and M.S. and Ph.D. theses. He was a published author and conducted and published numerous SD studies and consulted with corporate and government clients both large and small. He retired from teaching in 1999.

After he retired, he and a former student founded Ecocosm Dynamics, a group dedicated to studying the Earth’s environmental crisis from a systems perspective, and to searching for a solution. He was passionate about bringing his environmental concerns to the international systems analysis and sustainability communities through his writing and speaking at conferences throughout the world. Willard was an ardent supporter of the arts. He especially enjoyed the opera and the symphony. He was devoted to his beloved Holy Cross Episcopal Church and served on the vestry and was the head of ushers for 40 years.

Willard is survived by his children and their spouses Lorenne (Donny Williams), Leanne (Lem Ward), and Erik (Salley) and his four grandchildren Lillie (Matthew Read), William, Andrew, and Owen.

A private graveside service will be held at a date to be determined.

In lieu of flowers please make a donation to your favorite arts organization, environmental group, or your place of worship.