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IN MEMORIAM
EUGENE B. KONECCI
Professor Eugene B. Konecci passed away
on November 19, 1992. He was a space pioneer, dedicated educator, and
advocate of technology venturing. He held high-level positions in the
federal government, aerospace industry, and air force, in addition to
a triple professorship in The University of Texas System.
He earned a bachelor of science degree
in chemistry and biology from Roosevelt University in Chicago and a
doctorate in medical physiology from the University of Bern, Switzerland.
He also did graduate work at the University of Chicago and received
special training at the USAF Air Command and Staff School and the Atomic
Commission's Institute of Nuclear Studies at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Konecci's experience with aircraft began
during World War II, when he joined the army air corps while a student
at Clemson College, South Carolina. In 1950, he joined the air force
as chief of physiology and toxicology and he also worked in the Inspector
General’s Office as development engineering inspector for weapons
systems. He had assignments in space medicine, radiobiology, and physiology-biophysics
at the School of Aviation Medicine, Randolph Air Force Base, San Antonio,
Texas. While serving in the United States Air Force, he was head of
the Isotope Laboratories and he was the logistics control and supply
control officer for the radio biological department, which ran projects
in the Pacific and Nevada Nuclear Test Ranges, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge,
and Balcones Research Center at The University of Texas.
In the 1950s, Dr. Konecci was head of
Douglas Aircraft Company’s life sciences activities and he was
involved in several programs such as Thor, Nike-Zeus, Skybolt, Saturn
IV, DC-8, DC-9, and manned space systems. His life sciences organization
was an interdisciplinary group of engineers, physical scientists, and
biomedical specialists who performed man-machine system analysis and
research.
The executive vice president of Douglas
Aircraft, Arthur Raymond, selected Dr. Konecci to serve on the company’s
Advanced Planning Space Committee in 1957. This top management committee
spent more than a year conducting an extensive survey of the market
and the research-and-development potentials in the new space field.
The resulting comprehensive plan recommended management changes and
the construction of facilities and laboratories to enable the company
to become competitive in this field. One of the prime goals of the committee
was to educate company management executives about space. Dr. Konecci
coauthored a space primer to give them an understanding of the fundamentals
of this new complex field.
Dr. Konecci participated in the early
plans for NASA and served from 1962 to 1964 as director of NASA's Biotechnology
and Human Research Office in Washington. He also served as a senior
professional staff member of the President's National Aeronautics and
Space Council and as chief advisor to President Lyndon Johnson on the
United States space program. When Dr. Konecci joined The University
of Texas in 1966, he was a senior professional staff member of the President’s
Space Council. The council, under the chairmanship of the vice president,
is directly responsible to the President of the United States for overseeing
the nation’s space and aeronautics programs. Dr. Konecci’s
prime responsibility was to cover the manned space flight programs,
which included the planning, management, budgeting, research and development,
coordination, facilities, and administrative operations of several organizations:
(1) the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s present
and future manned programs such as Gemini, Apollo, space stations, lunar
bases, and interplanetary flight; (2) the Department of Defense’s
manned-orbiting laboratories and lifting-body programs; (3) the Atomic
Energy Commission’s nuclear propulsion and Snap projects for use
in manned systems; (4) the State Department’s planning and coordination
of the use of space as an instrument of international policy; and (5)
aeronautics research for both the NASA and the FAA supersonic transport
systems.
In 1962 the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration recognized his talents and asked him to form a
new program called Human Factors Systems. His responsibilities included
identification and application of features of the manned aerospace programs
to commercial and private enterprises and other government agencies.
The man-machine systems approach, which has proven to be so effective
in the aerospace program, is one of Dr. Konecci’s areas of great
achievement. He planned and organized several successful conferences
and symposia in and out of government, including the American Astronautical
Society’s Goddard Memorial Symposium, "Space Age in the Fiscal
Year 2001," and the National Cybernetics Conference, "Ecological Technology
in Space, Earth-Sea," at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
Konecci was renowned internationally
for his man-machine system research and management planning of several
successful programs in diverse fields such as cabin systems, space systems,
space cabin design, ecological systems, biological warfare, information
systems, and biomedical research.
He was a fellow of the American Astronautical
Society and was elected president in May 1968. He was a pioneer in aerospace
research and development and was appointed as an advisor to the Smithsonian
Institution National Air and Space Museum.
Konecci held UT Austin professorships
in management in the Graduate School of Business and in aerospace engineering
in the College of Engineering, as well as a professorship in bioengineering
at The University of Texas Medical School in San Antonio. Upon his appointment
to the University, Chancellor Harry Ransom stressed the cross-disciplinary
nature of Dr. Konecci's past and future work. Ransom stated, "We plan
to accelerate our rate of interdisciplinary teaching and research activities
at the University by bringing back people like Dr. [George] Kozmetzky
and Dr. Konecci to the academic ranks to help us achieve our goals.
The space program has stimulated new system approaches and given us
a wealth of new technology. We at The University of Texas plan to capitalize
on these by a transference program from our nation’s aerospace
efforts to achieve the greatest benefits for mankind. The University
of Texas is a natural place for such cross-disciplinary technological
transference."
In January 1967, one year after he joined
the UT faculty, Dr. Konecci was named the first holder of the Kleberg-King
Ranch Professorship established by the King Ranch family. Unlike endowed
professorships that are associated with a particular department or field
of research, the Kleberg professorship may be designated for different
UT departments from year to year. B. K. Johnson of Kingsville, a trustee
of the Kleberg Fund, said the professorship was established "to aid
the University in attracting eminent educators and scientists who will
have an impact on the campus and upon the state of which the University
will be proud to share." The Alice G. K. Kleberg Professorship was converted
into an endowed professorship in 1983 as the Kleberg-King Ranch Professorship
in Management. Dr. Konecci held the professorship until his death.
He also served as director of a project
on "transference of aerospace technology" directed toward
ecological problems, health maintenance, and biomedical instrumentation,
some of the most important aspects of the manned space programs. Some
of his other research dealt with the marine resources of Texas coastal
waters and problems of living underwater for long periods of time.
In addition to his other responsibilities,
Dr. Konecci became special assistant to Chancellor Ransom at The University
of Texas System level, director of research for the Graduate School
of Business, and director of the Research Center for Management of Technical
and Intellectual Resources. After several years of these multiple program
activities, Dr. Konecci began to concentrate on graduate student instruction
and course development, with an emphasis on Management of New Enterprises;
Management of Technology; Management of Large Scale Complexes, Business,
Government, and Society; and Biotechnology, Agribusiness, and Resource
Management. Gene was among the founding faculty of the IC2
Institute.
Dr. Konecci supervised hundreds of graduate
students who received their MBA degrees. Many of their projects led
to job opportunities and new business ventures, and many of his former
students are now leaders in business and government.
During the last years of his career,
Dr. Konecci was the director of business plan development for the Center
for Technology Venturing. This entailed organizing and conducting conferences
and workshops around the state of Texas with entrepreneurs and assisting
them in implementing ideas into feasible business plans.
Dr. Konecci was a unique interdisciplinary
individual. He was a renaissance man who combined a classical background
in scientific, technical, and biomedical disciplines with a wide array
of real world experience that spanned 38 years in program management,
research, development, policy, and business. In the truest sense he
became a manager of intellectual, technological, energy, and economic
resources. Dr. Konecci's extensive experience in business and government
program management, including science and technology, served as the
foundation for planning-programming and budgeting, staffing, implementing,
and operating a number of aerospace, military-industrial complex projects
and programs, in addition to a number of biomedical and healthcare-related
activities. His many years of formal and informal academic and real
world experience in multiple fields is applicable to today's complex
and sophisticated needs in managing human, technological, ecological,
environmental, energy, and economic resources that dramatically affect
business, government, and societal interrelationships and our national
and international well-being.
Professor Konecci's widow Hana, and
his two sons, Paul and Jan, survive him.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner,
President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
This memorial resolution was prepared
by Professor James A. Fitzsimmons.
Distributed to the Dean of the Red McCombs School
of Business, the Executive Vice President and Provost, and the President
on January 5, 2001. Copies are available on request from the Office
of the General Faculty, FAC 22, F9500. This resolution is posted
under "Memorials" at: http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/.
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