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<FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B><I><A HREF="../../ORMS.shtml" TARGET="_top">OR/MS Today</A> - October 2002</I></B></font><BR>
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<FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>Operations Research 50th Anniversary</B></FONT><br>
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<IMG SRC="art/50th-logo-Tall.jpg" WIDTH="90" HEIGHT="216" HSPACE="8" VSPACE="0" ALIGN="left" BORDER="1" ALT=" "><FONT SIZE="+1"><I>Side Story: </I></FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE="+2"><B>Reminiscences & Reflections:<BR>
My first taste of OR</B><BR>
'I Had Never Heard of OR'</FONT><BR>
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<FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><B>By Sid Hess</B></FONT><br>
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<IMG SRC="art/Hess_Px.jpg" WIDTH="120" HEIGHT="182" HSPACE="8" VSPACE="0" ALIGN="Right" BORDER="1" ALT=" ">
Because I had one year of graduate chemical engineering education, the U.S. Army assigned me to its Chemical Corps Operations Research Group. I had never heard of operations research, and when I asked about it, I was told, "It's classified, but there is a book in the library by Morse and Kimball." So I learned about probability, protecting convoys, anti-submarine warfare and simulation.<BR>
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In my two years in the Chemical Corps we modeled gas cloud behavior under various meteorological conditions and competitive munitions effects. Frankly, it was more interesting, and cleaner, than working in a chemical plant.<BR>
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In 1956, <I>Fortune</I> magazine published a sexy article about industrial applications of OR, including counting nodes to help Seabrook Farms grow peas more efficiently and a linear programming application Heinz used to distribute catsup. (It's time for that magazine to do an updated article on OR!)<BR>
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I also learned of Case Institute of Technology's pioneer OR graduate program. ORSA was meeting in Washington, D.C., that year so several of us persuaded the Army to send us. At the meeting Len Arnoff made a sales pitch for the Case Group and virtually offered us research assistantships on the spot. Jim Fisher and I accepted.<BR>
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In those early days Case was a heady place. Research was primarily industrially sponsored, pioneering work in inventory control, distribution, competitive bidding for oil leases, R & D management and marketing science. Course work was largely based on these research applications plus lots of statistics, sampling, philosophy of science and, of course, OR methodology as being developed by Wes Churchman, Len Arnoff and Russ Ackoff. Other faculty included Mike Leyzorek, Fred Hanssmann and Bill Abendroth, later joined by John Little, Pat Rivett and Glen Camp among others. Eli Naddor was their first Ph.D. graduate; Jim Fisher, Larry Friedman, George Summers and I comprised the second wave.<BR>
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<FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2><I>A past president of TIMS, <B>Sid Hess</B> joined ORSA and TIMS in 1957 and continues to serve INFORMS as a member of the Public Information Committee.</I><BR>
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<FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" SIZE=2>• Return to the main story: <I><A HREF="frhistory.html" TARGET="_top">History in the Making</A></I></FONT><br>
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<b><i>OR/MS Today</i></b> copyright © 2002 by <A HREF="http://www.informs.org/" target="_new">the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences</a>. All rights reserved.<br>
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