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Paul Anderson - R.I.P.
5

Paul Anderson - R.I.P.

Paul Anderson - R.I.P.

(OP)

Quote (Prof. Anjan Bose, a former colleague and friend of Paul Anderson):


The reason we have a reliable source of electricity when you turn on the light switch is due in no small part to Paul M. Anderson, whose switch was turned off on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at age 85.  Paul died peacefully at home in San Ramon, California while listening to Beethoven after complications following Congestive Heart Failure and a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease.  He will be remembered for his remarkable contributions to the field of Electrical Engineering as a researcher, professor and author, as well as being a loving father and family man.

Paul was born January 22, 1926 in Winterset, Iowa, the younger brother of Francis, son of Neil and Buena.  After High School he enlisted in the Army Air Corps until WWII ended in 1945.  He then attended Iowa State College majoring in Electrical Engineering.  It was at Iowa State where he met his bride-to-be, Virginia (Worswick) whereupon, after graduating, they were married in 1950.  After college Paul started working as an Engineer but later came back to Iowa State as an Instructor while working on his Master's Degree.  He found that he loved teaching and after obtaining his Ph.D. from ISU he ended up spending most of his career as a university professor of Electrical Engineering with an interest in Power Systems.  In addition to teaching engineering at Iowa State University (1955-1975), Paul was President and Principle Engineer of Power Math Associates, Inc., San Diego, CA (1978-1998).  Other accomplishments include Program Manager at Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA (1975-1978), Chair in Electric Power Systems, Arizona State University (1980-1984), and Schweitzer Visiting Professor, Washington State University, Pullman, WA (1996-1997).

Paul was a member of six Professional Honorary Societies and was heavily involved with many Professional Society activities.  Paul was registered as an Electrical Engineer in Iowa, California and Arizona and in California was also registered as a Control System Engineer.

He published well over 50 papers in professional publications and authored or co-authored six books.  His books are still highly regarded in the field of Electric Power Systems and some have been translated into Chinese and Russian.

Paul was honored with several awards for his accomplishments, including being awarded as a National Science Foundation Science Faculty Fellow, a Faculty Citation from the Iowa State University Alumni Association, and a Professional Achievement Citation in Engineering from Iowa State University.  He was recognized as a Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1981.  He was also elected to the National Academy of Engineering, among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer, for his contributions that have advanced the analysis and control of electric power systems worldwide.

Paul always loved music, from the time in 5th grade when he used to practice his new baritone horn on the front porch home in Des Moines ("probably to the consternation of the entire neighborhood" he once said) through high school and college.  He was a member of several glee clubs, chorus and big bands.  Paul loved playing his beloved Steinway piano and loved entertaining friends and family with his singing of old Air Corp songs and commercial jingles.

Paul is survived by his wife of 60 years, Virginia, and their four sons and spouse/partners:  Bill/Anne, Mark/Holly, Jim/Yuriko, Tom/Tracy and one granddaughter Tomel.

In lieu of flowers, Paul's family would appreciate donations made to the Alzheimer's Association or your favorite charity.

Quote (Aziz Fouad):


I have heard the sad news of Paul Anderson's passing. I feel sad because of the enormity of the loss. Paul was a personal friend, a coworker, a senior colleague, a collaborator and co-author, and even a student (yes you read that correctly). I think I have known Paul since the mid 1950's but my close association with him started when I joined the ISU faculty in the Fall of 1960. Paul was on leave finishing his doctorate. I think I was the only or one of the few electrical power engineering professors at ISU at the time. I taught power classes to some graduate students (some of them became Deans later) on my own time. I don't remember how many graduate courses I taught at the time, but one memorable experience was teaching a course on 'Distribution' in which Paul was enrolled. I had to work very hard not to make serious mistakes (Paul had spent few years working for IPS).

Paul's career as an electrical power engineer since the early 1970's is well known. He authored or co-authored books that became standard texts and or references (Control and stability; SSR etc.). His work in the Power Engineering Society became an example for many members to follow. Since you have been associated with Paul and his work you are well aware of his great contributions to the Power Engineering Profession. What is not generally known is his contribution in the early 1960's. I think your students should know about it. I am proud to have been part of it. In my modest opinion, there are only a handful of people, and Paul is one of them, whose work in the early 1960's made electrical power engineering education as we now know it possible. For the record, I want to tell today's electrical engineer's what we all owe to Paul Anderson.

About 2 ½ or three years ago, I was invited to attend a meeting of your Research Program in Golden, Colorado. It was indeed a pleasure to attend, and see the support you have had from industry, and the relevance of the topics being reported upon in that meeting. It almost brought tears to my eyes. Why? Because things were very different 40-50 years ago. The culture in the power industry was that professors were supposed to 'teach' and not do research, and if we strayed from that rule we did it at our own peril. Two examples illustrate this 'golden rule'. I don't recall which occurred first but they happened about the same era.

Paul and I felt strongly that electrical power would not be revived in academia unless the electrical power faculty did research (which made them eligible for promotion and tenure etc). We  (Paul  may have been the only author) wrote a paper about why research in electrical power was important at the university. It was submitted to AIEE but was not accepted, then was submitted to the American Power Conference and was accepted. That conference used to be held at the Grant Hotel in Downtown Chicago (which has been demolished since). Paul and I were standing at the lobby when two men approached us. They identified themselves as engineers with GE (I don't recall their names). They asked if we were the authors of the paper about research at the university. When we said yes they started a severe verbal attack on us. Not only they called us names, they made serious abusive and unfounded accusations. I think we were about to be physically assaulted by these two men except that some of the engineers standing around us kept us apart. Now you can see why I was touched to see many industry engineers at the meeting of your own research program.

The second story needs some introduction. The ISU electrical power research program was started in 1962 by Paul and I. It was patterned after a similar program in Solid State Electronics started by Art Pohm and his colleagues a couple of years earlier. If my memory is correct we made the subscription by a utility to cover a graduate student stipend for nine months. We took an Engineering Research Dept. car and visited the different utilities in Iowa. The first one we visited we were told that the man who can make such a decision was in Arizona and they will let us know when he returns. The second company told us that they would join if another company joins first. The third company we visited is pertinent to this story. We were ushered into the president's office. For the next ½ hour we were treated like two con men trying to defraud that company of $3000/year, and this president's duty was to stop this fraudulent request. When we left the president's office we were escorted out by a company vice president. When he said good bye to us he said' Guys, don't worry count us in!' I was grateful to this man until I retired from ISU. For the record' the Power Affiliates Research started in late 1962 with 8 members: the six Iowa Utilities, Detroit Edison (where I had spent the Summer  of 1961), and L.A. Dept of Water and Power ( the late Dean Mervin Coover knew their chief engineer well).

In short, Paul was a visionary who felt that, for electrical power to be viable in the university, research had to be an important part of the electrical power program. He carried that message sometimes risking negative attempts by some people.

There is more to Paul's contribution to establishing electrical power engineering in the university than creating a research environment. He also felt that a forum was needed

For electrical power engineering professors to exchange ideas etc. First, he tried to get the American Power Conference to give us a session for university power programs. When his request was denied he called a meeting in Chicago (I think it was during the American Power Conference of that year). In that meeting ' The Midwest Power Symposium' was created. I think it was to be held on different sides of the Mississippi in alternate years for several years. If my memory is correct it became 'North American Power Symposium in the 1980's. I hope it is still going strong. If it is, I hope that Paul would be remembered as the creator of this forum.

You would think that the above contributions are more than enough to make Paul's contributions of lasting value to Power Engineering Education and the electrical power engineering profession. Actually there are other major contributions that should be acknowledged. The tools of power system analysis needed to be modernized. This was needed not only to accommodate modern system theory when it is applied to power systems, but also to meet the requirements of digital computers which were becoming the common tools of power system analysis. One might think that this would be a welcome contribution; actually it was met with considerable resistance by some of the 'old guards'.  The accusation which I personally overheard a few times was ' ours is not a power program, rather it is a science program'. I even heard such accusation when we used an IEEE standard for modeling synchronous machines in power system dynamic analysis.

There is another major contribution which Paul made that impacted some major academic

programs (including mine at ISU). It happened in the 1970's but is not generally known. Paul was the first manager of EPRI's 'Power System Planning and Operations Program'. He started something called 'Advanced Concepts' initiative to fund small research projects in universities. I did not know until 1980 when I spent a year at EPRI that this initiative was hated by Paul's boss and may have actually contributed to costing him his job. This program lasted 3-4 years and was responsible for 3 or 4 successful projects that lasted beyond the initial research stage.

For about a dozen years, I worked closely with Paul. I learned a lot in those years.

Paul, thanks for the good years we spent together. Wherever you are rest in peace.


 

RE: Paul Anderson - R.I.P.

Thank you for sharing this with us David. It is always sad when such a leader and visionary leaves us.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

RE: Paul Anderson - R.I.P.

David,

Thanks for posting.  My Paul Anderson book on Faulted Power Systems is among the most well-worn in my library.  

dpc

David Castor
www.cvoes.com

RE: Paul Anderson - R.I.P.

5
(OP)
Analysis of faulted power systems, and how unfaulted ones can become faulted, is what my work life is all about.  Terrible loss, too bad his life's work was cut short many years ago due to Alzheimer's.

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