The Loss of Two Quality Leaders

I just want to post my comments on the loss of two people that have impacted my journey of understanding what software quality is all about.

The first person I'll mention is Rodger Drabick, the author of "Best Practices for the Formal Software Testing Process."

I had the pleasure of working with Rodger and learning from his vast knowledge in software quality. When I went to my first QAI software testing conference in 1989, Rodger had been speaking about software testing and QA for many years. After hearing Rodger speak, I truly realized how much I didn't know about software quality! I have always looked up to him as one of the people of which we stand on their shoulders to practice software testing and QA today. I will remember him as one of the foundational people in my career. I will miss him!

Rodger is survived by his wife, Karen, his mother, two daughters, three grandchildren, and his four siblings. An obituary is posted here: http://www.mountvernonnews.com/notices/12/11/03.html

The family suggests memorial contributions be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, 120 Wall St., 19th Floor, New York, NY 10005: https://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm

The other person was Dr. Joseph Juran, who passed away last week from natural causes at age 103. I didn't know Dr. Juran personally, but he also shaped my view of quality through his writings, and impacted the worldwide quality movement for many, many years. Dr. Deming quoted Juran often!

I was very inspired as I read the tribute to Dr. Juran's at http://www.juran.com/. At age 103, he was still making a contribution, working on another book and caring for his wife of 81 years, Sadie.

As quoted in the press release, "In 1937, Dr. Juran coined the Pareto Principle, which millions of managers rely on to help separate the “vital few” from the “useful many” in their activities. He also wrote the first standard reference work on quality management, the Quality Control Handbook, first published in 1951 and now moving into its sixth edition."

These men both ran the race well and they will be missed by many.