Joseph Koepfinger
Developed standards for electric power systems
Life Fellow, 99; died 6 January
Koepfinger was an active volunteer with the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), an IEEE predecessor society. He made significant contributions to the fields of surge protection and electric power engineering.
In the early 1950s he took part in a three-year task force studying distribution circuit reliability as a member of AIEE’s
surge protective devices committee (SPDC), according to his ArresterWorks biography.
In 1955
he helped revise the AIEE Standard 32 on neutral grounding devices and was part of a team that developed guidelines for power transformer loadings.
In the 1960s he became chair of the SPDC and initiated efforts to develop standards for low-voltage surge protectors. Later, Koepfinger served on the
IEEE Standards Association Board and contributed to the development of IEEE standards for lightning arresters and surge protectors.
He received several awards for his work in standards development, including the
IEEE Standards Association’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the 1989 IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award. In 2008 he was inducted into the Surge Protection Hall of Fame, a tribute webpage honoring engineers who have contributed to the field.
Koepfinger had a 60-year career at
Duquesne Light, in Pittsburgh, retiring in 2000 as director of its system studies and research department. After retirement, he continued to serve as a technical advisor for the International Electrotechnical Commission, a standards organization.
He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the
University of Pittsburgh in 1949 and 1953.
Friends and colleagues who want to share their memories of Koepfinger can do so his obituary page on the Copeland Funeral Home’s website.
Bruce E. Arnold
Electrical engineer
Life member, 81; died 16 January
Arnold was an electrical engineer and computer support specialist. He began his career in 1967 at sewing machine manufacturer Singer in New York City. As supervisor of electrical design and electromechanical equipment, he developed new electronic and motor package subsystems for high-volume consumer sewing machines.
Arnold left Singer in 1983 to join
Revlon, a New York City–based cosmetics company, as director of electrical engineering. There he designed electronic and pneumatic systems for automated manufacturing and robotic automation.
Ten years later he changed careers, becoming a computer support specialist at Degussa Corp., a chemical manufacturing company in Piscataway, N.J. Degussa is now part of
Evonik.
Arnold retired in 2006 and became a consultant.
He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1969 from the Newark College of Engineering (now the
New Jersey Institute of Technology). He earned a master’s degree in EE in 1975 from NJIT.
William Hayes Kersting
Electrical engineering professor
Life Fellow, 88; died 7 January
Kersting taught electrical engineering for 40 years at his alma mater, New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces.
During his tenure, he established the university’s
electric utility management program. He published more than 70 academic research articles. He also wrote Distribution System Modeling and Analysis, a textbook that is widely used in graduate programs worldwide.
He was an active volunteer of the
IEEE Power & Energy Society, serving on its education committee and distribution systems analysis subcommittee.
Kersting received the
Edison Electric Institute’s 1979 Power Engineering Education Award.
Richard A. Olsen
Human factors engineer
Life member, 90; died 7 November
Olsen made significant contributions to aerospace defense technologies and transportation safety. He specialized in human factors engineering, a field that focuses on designing products, systems, and environments that are safe, efficient, and easy for people to use. While working as a human factors engineer at the
Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. in Sunnyvale, Calif., he contributed to early guidelines for computer-human interaction.
He helped build the first-generation
Image Data Exploitation (IDEX) system, used by intelligence agencies and the military to analyze digital imagery.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1955 from
Union College, in Schenectady, N.Y., he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Olsen attended the Navy’s Officer Candidate School, in Newport, R.I., before being assigned to a destroyer ship in December 1956. He left active duty three years later.
In 1960 he joined
Hughes Aircraft Co., a defense contractor in Fullerton, Calif., as a field engineer. He helped develop radar systems and worked at the Navy Electronics Laboratory’s Fleet Anti-Air Warfare Training Center, in San Diego, on the USS Enterprise and USS Mahan. He later was promoted to lead field engineer and worked at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, in Vallejo, Calif.
Olsen moved to Pennsylvania in 1964 to attend graduate school at
Pennsylvania State University in State College. After earning master’s and doctoral degrees in experimental psychology in 1966 and 1970, he joined Penn State’s Larson Transportation Institute as director of its human factors research program. Four years later, he became an assistant professor at the university’s industrial and management systems engineering department.
He left Penn State in 1980 to join Lockheed. After retiring from the company in 1990, he served as an expert witness for 14 years, testifying in several hundred accident-investigation cases.
He was a member of the
Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering’s Transportation Research Board, and SAE (the Society of Automotive Engineers). He was a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and edited one of its newsletters, The Forvm.
Jo Edward Davidson
Communications engineer
Life senior member, 87; died 24 April 2024
Davidson’s work as an electrical engineer impacted several key communications technologies including early GPS development.
He was instrumental in installing cellular networks in Argentina, Nigeria, and the Philippines. He wrote about his career in his memoir:
Far From the Flagpole: An Electrical Engineer Tells His Story.
He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1959 to 1965, attaining the rank of second lieutenant. After he was discharged, he worked at several companies including
Eastman Kodak, Scientific Atlanta, and BellSouth International.
He contributed to several satellite communications and network projects while working at
Alcatel and Globalstar, both in Memphis. He retired from Globalstar in 2000 as director of satellite network systems.
Davidson received a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1963 from
Arizona State University, in Tempe.
This article was updated on 25 April 2025.
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