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IEEE Life Fellow Theodore W. “Ted” Hissey died on 14 October on the age of 97.
An lively volunteer whose involvement with IEEE spanned greater than six many years, Hissey served as IEEE director emeritus from 1994 to 1996. In 1997 he was vp of the IEEE Foundation.
More lately, he centered on facilitating partnerships and establishing joint awards with different technical societies in IEEE Regions 8, 9, and 10. But in a 2014 interview with The Institute, Hissey stated his actual ardour was organizing outreach occasions for college kids and mentoring new volunteers by way of IEEE Young Professionals.
“I seek out and mentor ambitious young professionals and encourage them to seek higher-level positions within IEEE to bring their fresh and innovative ideas into the organization,” he stated.
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 neighborhood and IEEE’s fields of curiosity.
“Theodore Hissey was the kindest and most empowering soul,” Eddie Custovic says. The IEEE senior member obtained the 2022 IEEE Theodore W. Hissey Outstanding Young Professional Award.
“His encouragement and support is something that helped me tremendously in my early career,” Custovic provides. “Receiving the 2022 IEEE award that bears his name is the greatest highlight of my professional career. His legacy and what it means to be a selfless leader, will continue to serve our global IEEE community as exemplary. He will never be forgotten. Rest in peace Uncle Ted.”
A jet-setting profession
After receiving his bachelor’s diploma in energy engineering in 1948 from Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Hissey joined Leeds and Northrup (L&N) in Philadelphia as an purposes engineer. The firm made electrical measurement devices and management and energy programs. He labored there for 43 years, serving in a wide range of engineering and administration positions.
While at L&N, Hissey joined quite a few 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.
Those contacts helped Hissey and L&N tackle a number of worldwide tasks akin to organising telemetry programs for Aramco, a nationwide oil and pure fuel firm in Saudi Arabia. He hung out in Brazil serving to engineers there increase and stabilize the ability grid.
Later he was a principal engineer at Macro Corp., an engineering consultancy agency based mostly in Horsham, Pa.
In the 2014 interview, Hissey credited a few of his profession achievements to his involvement with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers—certainly one of IEEE’s predecessor societies—and later IEEE.
“Organizing and attending global conferences, networking with engineers, and having access to the latest technical research really helped me keep up as hardware and software evolved,” he stated. “IEEE paved a road for me throughout 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.
Toward the tip of his profession, he was on the IEEE Board of Directors, and he was director of IEEE Division VII (Energy and Power Engineering). He additionally served on a number of committees in addition to the Regional Activities (now Member and Geographic Activities), Standards, and Technical Activities boards.
He served as IEEE treasurer within the early Nineteen Nineties. In 1994 he was appointed performing IEEE government director.
Hissey loved sharing his knowledge with the subsequent era. “I tell young people they’re in a different world today than when I started out in the late 1940s,” he informed The Institute in 2014. “In those days, companies were more supportive of their employees; their professional development was a priority. Now young professionals often have to learn these skills on their own.”
Through his mentorship, “Uncle Ted” helped many volunteers really feel as if they didn’t need to go it alone.
“Ted’s support of [students and young professionals] was outstanding,” says Francisco Martinez, 2021 president of the IEEE Foundation. “He motivated them not only to improve their professional skills but also to continue their involvement with IEEE.”