Dr. William Henry McCumber

 In Memoriam:
 Dr. William H. McCumber,
      Ph.D., P.E.
 
 Obituary

It is with deep regret and sorrow that EagleRidge Technologies, Inc., announces the death of co-founder and president Dr. William Henry McCumber. Crystal Sloan, VP of EagleRidge Technologies, Inc., states, "He was a world-class systems engineer and much-loved educator, and a dear friend. He will be sorely missed by the many people whose lives he influenced."

Dr. McCumber, of Rockwood, Tennessee, 68, passed away peacefully at 12:01 PM at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday, July 20, 2003 after a short illness.

Dr. McCumber, a Professor of Practice at the Graduate School of Management and Technology of the University of Maryland University College of Adelphi, MD, has taught systems engineering for decades. In addition to serving as president of EagleRidge Technologies, Inc., of Rockwood,  he was a partner in TEAMS of Houston, a consulting firm.

Dr. McCumber was one of the world's leading systems engineers and educators, working in space, military, medical, solar, industrial, and agricultural applications on five continents; he contributed to every Apollo mission through the moon landing, to the Space Lab, and to the Space Shuttle.

From 1960 to 1969 he worked for Douglas Aircraft, as a flight control circuit designer for the Skybolt air-launched ballistic missile, as a flight test engineer at Eglin Air Force Base, as Apollo telemetry and systems integration engineer at Cape Canaveral Space Center, and as an Apollo remote site real-time flight controller.

Later at IBM Federal Systems, he earned two outstanding achievement awards, as Program Manager of Systems Integration Engineering for IBM World Trade Asia, in 1988 and 1989, and was awarded the Systems Engineering Chair on IBM Federal Systems Division Technical Staff from 1986 through 1988; he is retired from IBM Federal Systems and Loral/Lockheed Martin.

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma in Electrical Engineering, he received his graduate degrees in Industrial (Systems) Engineering from the University of Alabama at Huntsville and the University of Houston, and had been a licensed Professional Engineer in the states of Texas and Alabama.

A member of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), he was elected to the prestigious rank of Fellow in July 2000, “for contributions as a quintessential industrial leader, especially in the education and training of practicing systems engineers.” He is the former Chairman of the INCOSE Principles Working Group, former Associate Editor and reviewer for Systems Engineering, the Journal of INCOSE, and the author of many technical papers and other works; his paper, Educating Systems Engineers: Encouraging Divergent Thinking, was named Best Paper in the Education and Research category by INCOSE for 2002.

Dr. McCumber served as a radio engineer in the Air Force during the Korean War, and later was engineer for the University of Oklahoma radio station. An athlete as well as scholar, he played football in high school in both Balboa High School in Panama and in Midland, TX, and briefly at the University of Oklahoma. A former Panama resident, he was a member of the Panama Canal Society of Florida. He was also past President of the Huntsville Folk Music Society of Huntsville, AL, and a gifted guitarist and folksinger.

He is survived by his six children and their mother, his nine beloved grandchildren, and by his partner and close friend Crystal Sloan.

Services were held 2PM Wednesday, July 23, 2003 at Lakewood Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama. He was buried with full military honors at Valley View Memorial Gardens, Meridian Bottom Road, Meridianville, Alabama. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to his favorite charity, the Southwest Point Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Copyright © 2003 EagleRidge Technologies, Inc.