Everett, Robert R., 1921-2018

Mr. Robert R. Everett is currently a senior scientist of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board and a member of the Ballistic Missile Defense Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Research, Engineering and Development Committee. He was a longtime member of the boards of directors of the Digital Equipment Corporation and the Massachusetts General Hospital Corporation.
From 1969 to 1986, Mr. Everett served as president of The MITRE Corporation. He joined the newly formed company as technical director in October 1958. In December 1959, he was named vice president, Technical Operations, and became executive vice president of MITRE in March 1969.
In 1943, Mr. Everett joined the staff of MIT’s Servomechanisms Laboratory, engaging primarily in the development of hydraulic servomechanisms for stabilized shipboard radar antennas. Two years later, he became associated with Jay W. Forrester and Project Whirlwind, which was developing electronic digital computers. In 1947, Project Whirlwind became the Electronic Computer Division of the Servomechanisms Laboratory, but in 1951 it separated from the Servomechanisms Laboratory to become the MIT Digital Computer Laboratory, and Mr. Everett was named associate director. In that same year, a large part of the Digital Computer Laboratory joined the newly formed MIT Lincoln Laboratory as Division VI. Mr. Everett became associate head of Division VI and a member of the Lincoln Steering Committee, continuing as associate director of the Digital Computer Laboratory. In 1956, he became head of Division VI of Lincoln Laboratory, where he was in charge of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense system design and test, and directed Lincoln’s data processing research and development. This work led directly to the founding of The MITRE Corporation.
Mr. Everett has served on many boards and committees. From 1987 to 1993, he was a member of the Defense Science Board (DSB), serving as chairman from 1988 through 1989. From 1970 to 1972, he served as a member of the Advisory Council of the Panel on Major Systems Acquisition of the Commission on Government Procurement. Also from 1971 to 1972, Mr. Everett served as a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Tracking and Data Acquisition Advisory Panel. From 1968 to 1969, he was a member of the Department of Transportation Air Traffic Control Advisory Committee, the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering Systems Engineering Management Panel, and the DSB Task Force on Research and Development Management.
From 1962 to 1968, he served as a consultant to the Air Force Systems Command Range Technical Advisory Group, and from 1959 to 1960, he was a consultant to the Air Defense Panel, President’s Science Advisory Committee.
In 2009, the Computer History Museum honored Mr. Everett with a Fellow Award for his work on Whirlwind and SAGE and a lifetime of directing advanced research and development projects. In 2008, the Department of Defense (DoD) presented Mr. Everett with the prestigious Eugene G. Fubini Award for his outstanding contributions to its mission. The Fubini Award, established in 1996 by then-Secretary of Defense William Perry, recognizes annually an individual from the private sector for innovations to help meet the needs of warfighters and peacekeepers and for their advice and counsel on issues of major importance to the Secretary of Defense and the DoD.
In 1990, Mr. Everett received the Air Traffic Control Association’s George W. Kriske Memorial Award for his contributions to air traffic control and the Pioneer Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Aerospace Electronics Systems Society, for his work on the development of the Whirlwind computer.
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush awarded Mr. Everett the National Medal of Technology, the nation’s highest honor in this area, for his work in real-time computer technologies and applications. He has also received the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Gold Medal Award for Engineering (1985), and the DoD Medal for Distinguished Public Service — the Department’s highest recognition of a civilian in peacetime (1983).
Mr. Everett’s work has been published in numerous technical journals, and he has been awarded several patents in the fields of magnetic drum memories and display devices.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 1942 and his master’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1943. He was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree by Duke University in 1992 and had previously received an honorary doctor of engineering degree from Northeastern University. In 1978, he received the Duke University Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award.
Mr. Everett is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Tau Beta Pi; a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Robert Rivers Everett (June 26, 1921 – August 15, 2018) was an American computer scientist. He was an honorary board member of the MITRE Corporation. He was born in Yonkers, New York.
In 1945 he worked with Jay Forrester on the Whirlwind project, one of the first real time electronic computers. In 1958 he was a founding member of the MITRE Corporation, and was its president from 1969 to 1986.
In 1983 he received the Medal for Distinguished Public Service from the Department of Defense and in 1989 he received the National Medal of Technology.
In 2009, he was named the winner of the 2008 Eugene G. Fubini Award for outstanding contributions to the Department of Defense (DoD). In 2009, he was also made a Fellow of the Computer History Museum "for his work on the MIT Whirlwind and SAGE computer systems and a lifetime of directing advanced research and development projects."

The MITRE community is saddened to announce that Robert R. Everett, a pioneer in the field of electrical engineering and former President and CEO of The MITRE Corporation, passed away on August 15 on Cape Cod, Mass. He was 97.
Everett served as president and CEO of MITRE from April 1969 to July 1986. His leadership tenure was marked by sustained growth and change for the company, founded in 1958 to take over groundbreaking work from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Lincoln Lab. During Everett’s time as president, MITRE was one of 16 recipients of the Air Force Pioneer Award, which honored outstanding organizations that have made significant contributions to the Air Force.
From MIT to MITRE
Born on June 26, 1921, in Yonkers, New York, Everett graduated from Duke University in 1942. In 1943, he received a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from MIT. While at MIT, Everett helped lead two of the projects that formed the basis for MITRE’s earliest work: the Whirlwind digital computer and the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense system design and test project.
Everett joined MITRE at its inception and became the company's first technical director, rising to become the first vice president of technical operations the following year. In 1969 he was named MITRE’s first executive vice president; he became president later that same year when John McLucas left to become Undersecretary of the Air Force.
Under Everett’s leadership, MITRE expanded its technical program and expertise beyond the original mission of helping the Air Force implement SAGE. During this period, MITRE began to work for additional organizations within the Department of Defense, as well as other government entities, including the Federal Aviation Administration and several education, health, and social agencies.
Everett received many awards and commendations for his scientific work, including the Duke University Distinguished Alumnus Award (1978); the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service (1983); the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Gold Medal Award for Engineering (1985); and the National Medal of Technology (1990). Throughout his career he served on several government advisory committees, including a term as chairman of the Defense Science Board from 1988 to 1989. His research has been published in numerous technical journals, and he was awarded several patents in the fields of magnetic drum memories and display devices.
Within MITRE, Everett's management philosophy was well known for its simplicity: “Good people make a great organization, which gets good jobs, which attract good people.”
In 2012, the company recognized Everett's pivotal role in the evolution of digital computing and his contributions to MITRE by dedicating a state-of-the art laboratory facility to him in Bedford, Mass. He continued to serve as a MITRE Honorary Trustee until his death.
Honoring Robert Everett
Everett leaves behind his wife, Ann T. Everett; sons Robert, Bruce, Ted, Doug, Michael, and David; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, donations (in the form of a check) can be made to the Robert R. and Ann T. Everett Endowment Fund at Duke University. The fund’s purpose is to keep undergraduate laboratory facilities in the Edmund T. Pratt School of Engineering fully equipped with appropriate teaching and research instrumentation. Please mail contributions to the Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, 305 Teer Engineering Building, Box 90271, Durham, NC 27708.

Robert Everett and Jay Forrester were pioneers in the development of early digital computer equipment during the years many consider to be the most productive decade for computing technology: 1946-1956.
A native of Nebraska, Forrester received a BS degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska in 1939. Everett received his BS degree in electrical engineering from Duke University in 1942. The two met as graduate students in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In 1944, the U.S. Navy contracted Forrester and Everett to develop a universal flight trainer and aircraft simulator. The then-students knew that the analog calculating machines that were available couldn’t do the job. Calculations on those machines took days, and this project called for something that would react instantly, solving many equations at once. Plus, a machine like that could have many different uses.
The result of Everett, Forrester, and their team’s work was Whirlwind, the first real-time electronic digital computer. This fast, reliable, versatile system replaced expensive, unreliable electrostatic tubes with dependable random access magnetic core memory – a technology that would dominate computers for about 20 years.
The technology involved the phenomenon that when current flows through a core, the core becomes magnetized even when the current is removed. The introduction of this kind of memory makes computers smaller in size, faster to access data, and more powerful. Whirlwind became the direct forerunner of the computers that today control air traffic and weapons systems, operate real-time reservations and banking systems, and keep track of records.
The project also yielded several technologies that are still in use today, including RAM, which became available in 1953. A concept for core memory had been patented by An Wang at Harvard University in 1949, but his technique involved using the cores on single wires to form delay lines. The Whirlwind Project conceived the technique of stringing the cores onto a matrix of wires and thus producing a random access memory.
By 1949, the Navy was losing interest in Whirlwind, but that summer, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb. People realized that computers would be essential in the defense of the country, and interest in Whirlwind was renewed. Forrester implemented the development of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system from Whirlwind-based prototypes. In 1953, Forrester's magnetic core memory was added to the system.
Forrester left the project in 1956 to focus on a new field – system dynamics – where he introduced the world to the concept of using computer simulations to analyze social systems. Meanwhile, SAGE began operating in 1958 and was used as an air defense system until the 1980s.
Forrester received his MS degree from MIT in 1945. He stayed on to become director of MIT's Digital Computer Laboratory until he changed his focus to system dynamics and began teaching at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Today Forrester is Germeshausen Professor Emeritus and Senior Lecturer at Sloan and a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
In 1943, Everett became a member of the staff of MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory, engaging primarily in the development of hydraulic servomechanisms for stabilized shipboard radar antennas. In 1956, he became head of Division VI of Lincoln Laboratory, where he was in charge of the SAGE air defense system design and test and directed Lincoln’s data processing research and development. From 1969 to 1986, Mr. Everett served as president of The MITRE Corp.
Everett was previously a senior scientist of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board and a member of the Ballistic Missile Defense Advisory Committee. His work has been published in numerous technical journals, and he has been awarded several patents in the fields of magnetic drum memories and display devices. Today, Everett is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
For their work in real-time computer technologies, Forrester and Everett were awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Bush in 1989.