Obituary
Remembering Bill Gruver, 1941 - 2016
A leader in industry, academia and IEEE, Vancouver Section member Prof. William (Bill) Gruver passed away on February 29, 2016.
Among his many honours, Bill was a Fellow of IEEE and the Engineering Institute of Canada, and a recipient of the IEEE Canada Computer Medal. His contributions to robotics and intelligent manufacturing systems earned him the Norbert Wiener Award from the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society. His volunteer service included a term as President of that society. He also held the position of Director of IEEE Division X, serving on the IEEE Board. Through the Distinguished Lecturer program of IEEE, he shared his passion for cybernetics and robotics, including a trip to South Africa in 2009.
Born July 13, 1941 in Harrisburg, PA, from a young age Bill demonstrated an interest in the sciences -- to the point of blowing up his chemistry set while in junior high school. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. While at university he was a member of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps.
He went on to receive his Masters from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, and upon returning taught at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD. He was honourably discharged and went back to the University of Pennsylvania for a second Masters and a PhD in Electrical Engineering. While obtaining his PhD, he was introduced to his wife-to-be through his friend and doctoral advisor, Dr. Victor Schutz. The family moved numerous times before settling in North Vancouver in 1992.
Bill held many positions in industry and academia over the years. After finishing his PhD, he held a position at the German Aerospace Center, and was a Humboldt Senior Scientist Fellow at the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany. From there Bill was an assistant professor at North Carolina State University before co-founding a start-up called LTI in Los Angeles. Following that, he held management positions at GE on the US East Coast and in Germany. The next five years included working for a tech company called IRT Corporation in San Diego, as well as the position of Director at the Center for Robotics and Manufacturing Systems at the University of Kentucky. In 1992, Bill accepted a position at the School of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. He was excited to work again with students and pursue his research interests in robotics. He retired as Professor Emeritus.
Outside of IEEE, Bill's accolades included the Civitate Honoris Causa from Óbuda University (Budapest, Hungary), a GE Management Award, and honorary positions at seven Chinese universities. He published 235 technical papers and four books on the theory and applications of robotics and manufacturing automation, distributed intelligent systems, control systems, and optimization.
Beyond his professional pursuits, Bill's many passions included singing, travelling, cooking, hiking, the stock market, and Porsches. Starting as a young man, Bill loved this iconic automobile, and right out of college he put together what money he had to buy his first used Porsche. Throughout the years, he would spend hours in his garage, working on his car and fixing it up. This passion never left him.
In 2011, Bill was a key member of the program Committee for IEEE Sections Congress in San Francisco. He headed the "Serve the World" track. This was a theme throughout his life, accompanied by a drive to live life to the fullest, with humour and kindness.
He will be greatly missed by his family, his friends and the global professional engineering community.
Our appreciation to Shawn Gruver for passing on many of the above details of Professor Gruver's life and work.
