Our RS Icon, Dr. Ralph A. Evans, Has Passed Away Dr. Ralph A. Evans, PhD, (Feb 2, 1924 - June 22, 2013) died peacefully in his sleep in Hospice Care at University Retirement Community in Davis, California. Ralph was a Fellow of IEEE and our former Managing Editor of the Reliability Society (RS) IEEE Transactions on Reliability. He was also a Fellow of ASQ and the Founding Editor of their ASQC Reliability Review. He was on the Management Committee of the RS co-sponsored RAMS Symposium from 1965 until his retirement and enjoyed the work and his colleagues on the Management Committee very much. Ralph received his BS in Engineering Physics from Lehigh University in 1944. From 1944-46, he worked at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. as a Radio Engineer, and then went back to school and received his PhD in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1954. In 1954, Ralph moved to the Midwest where he worked for Link-Belt Company, and in 1959, he became Director of their Research Laboratory. In 1961, he moved to North Carolina's new Research Triangle Park as a Senior Physicist for the Research Triangle Institute, where he prepared many of the NASA Reliability Abstracts, Technical Reviews, Specifications and Standards. In 1972, he became a Product Assurance Consultant (Evans & Associates) and an Editor. Ralph received many awards from his colleagues. In 1984, he received the IEEE Centennial Medal. In 1988, he received the Allen Chop Technical Achievement Award from the ASQC Reliability Division, and in 1987 he received the Annual Reliability Award from the IEEE Reliability Society. In 1989, he received the initial ASQC Electronics Division Ralph A. Evans Award. Ralph was known and respected broadly by the IEEE Reliability Society. Tom Fagan, one of our past RS Presidents, sent me an email letting me know that Ralph had died and I greatly appreciate receiving that. I have received a number of emails with very nice statements about Ralph. There is more information within this website: http://www.davisenterprise.com/obits/ralph-aiken-evans/ - Tom Fagan's email stated: I received a call this afternoon from Ralph's daughter (Ann) in Davis, CA, to inform us that Ralph passed away on June 23, 2013 in hospice care in Davis, CA. He was cremated and 1/2 his ashes are buried in Davis, CA, near his daughter and the other 1/2 were transported back to Raleigh-Durham to be buried with his wife, Catherine. Please pass this on to all the BOD/MC/ADCOM Members as I'm sure most either worked with Ralph or are aware of his contributions to the field of Reliability and RAMS. - Way Kuo stated that he was sorry to hear this news as Ralph had done a tremendous job for the Reliability Society, the Transactions, RAMS, etc. Way stated that Jason and he would write about Ralph and place it within our Transactions on Reliability. - Christian Hansen's email stated: Ralph Evans was definitely an icon in Reliability and in the broader field of Engineering Management. He leaves behind a legacy as a result of many universal engineering principles he introduced during his active career. In particular, there are two reliability and management principles that I believe he is the author of and to which I often refer to as "Ralph Evans Principles".
- Bob Loomis' email stated that Ralph was one of a kind, and an Icon in the quality and reliability world. His standards were impeccable and he expected the same from others, and consequently brought out their best. It is indeed sad news. - Alfred Steven's email stated I suppose we all knew this day would come but it is sad nevertheless. He was a hero to many of us. - Joe Childs' email stated: Ralph Evans seemed to always give us lots to think about!... at least for us Reliability Engineers. Back when he was the Editor of Transactions on Reliability (T-REL), I remember getting hard copy in the mail. I always turned first to Ralph's editorial page. There would consistently be a new way to use or think about a statistical tool or method. There would also be a point - some underlying idea that I could use every day. I use the "Make it easy to do it right, difficult to do it wrong" tenet at least once or twice a week, especially when addressing human reliability problems. The other tenet that comes to mind was first stated by the statistician, George E.P. Box, "All models are wrong, but some are useful." But with a Ralph Evans stamp, it became, "All models are wrong, but if understood, some can be useful." I always remember this when reviewing reliability analysis results or underlying assumptions - especially my own. "Lots to think about" is another way of describing the learning process. Our profession will sorely miss this statistician, this engineer,... this teacher. Ralph Evans was a very active Reliability Society member, a highly appreciated Managing Editor of our Reliability Society's IEEE Transactions on Reliability, and an extremely helpful Editor for authors. In long term fond memory, |
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