Remembering Paul Gray, BookISMs Columnist
It is with great sadness that I inform the readership of the death of Paul Gray, who died at the age of 81 on May 10, 2012, from injuries suffered in an automobile accident. He is survived by his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren. Paul authored the BookISMs column since Volume 4, Issue 2, 1987, when his first column, “Setting the MIS Course,” appeared. In addition to serving as columnist, Paul was an Editorial Board member since the inception of ISM in 1985. He was recognized for 25 years of outstanding service to ISM, from 1985–2010, at the International Conference on Information Systems 2010.
ISM was indeed fortunate to have had the services of Paul Gray. He was a recognized leader, inspiration, and mentor in the Information Systems community. Paul was Professor Emeritus and Founding Chair of the program in Information Science at Claremont Graduate University. He was awarded the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Kimball Medal for distinguished service in 2003, awarded the Association for Information Systems (AIS) LEO Award in 2002 for lifetime achievement, elected Fellow of INFORMS in 2002, recognized by the Association for Information Technology's (AITP) Special Interest Group on Education (EDSIG) as Educator of the Year in 2000, and elected AIS Fellow in 1999. Paul was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Communications of the AIS and served from 1998–2006. He was one of the 40 founding members of AIS and the driving force in the creation of the AIS Presidential Gallery, which highlights the accomplishments of the association's presidents during their terms in office as well as their individual backgrounds. He served as Co-chair of the joint ACM and AIS curriculum committee on the MS Program in IS, which issued the first model curriculum in 2000. He was the founder and curator of the Paul Gray PC Museum at Claremont.
Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1930, Paul came to New York City in 1938. He earned a bachelor's degree with Honors in Mathematics from New York University (1950), a master's degree in Mathematics from the University of Michigan (1954) and in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University (1962), and a PhD in Operations Research from Stanford University (1968). After completing his degrees, he held faculty positions at Stanford University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Southern California, Southern Methodist University, and Claremont Graduate University. Beginning in 1983, Paul created and built what became the largest Information Systems PhD program in the world, graduating its first PhD in 1991. Instrumental in bringing one of the 13 IBM $2 million grants to Claremont in 1986, Paul contributed to establishing Claremont as one of the leading academic institutions in Information Systems, now the School of Information Systems and Technology. Paul retired in May 2001 but continued to research, consult, teach, supervise doctoral students, and inspire us all. We will all miss him and his BookISMs column. A heartfelt thank you to Paul!