Background

Jack B. ReVelle was born on August 2, 1935, in Rochester, New York, United States. He is the son of Mark A. and Myril B. ReVelle. He grew up in Irondequoit, New York.

Education

In 1953 Jack B. ReVelle graduated from Irondequoit High School. In 1957 he received a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University. In 1965 ReVelle obtained a Master of Science degree from Oklahoma State University. In 1970 he gained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from this university.

Career

After receiving a degree in chemical engineering in 1957, Jack B. ReVelle was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force and served in Japan and Maryland before being transferred in 1960 to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. He was in charge of an explosive ordnance disposal unit there. In January 1961, when he was a munitions expert in the United States Air Force, he led the 10-person team that successfully carried out the highly dangerous task of deactivating two hydrogen bombs that had fallen onto a North Carolina field after a B-52G Stratofortress broke up in flight. Had either of the bombs detonated, thousands of lives would have been lost. After leaving the military, he went on to earn a doctoral degree and had a highly successful career as a consultant on the use of data to improve manufacturing processes and outcomes.

ReVelle commenced his career as an administrative assistant for General Dynamics in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1970, holding the role for one year. A consulting engineer in Denver, Colorado, for the following year, he then served as chair of decision sciences at the University of Nebraska from 1972 to 1977 and dean of the School of Business and Management at Chapman University from 1977 to 1979. Soon thereafter, he was a senior staff engineer at the McDonnell Douglas Space Systems (now Boeing Co.), in Huntington Beach, California, from 1979 to 1981, head of manufacturing, training and development and senior statistician at Hughes Aircraft Company in Fullerton, California, from 1981 to 1986, and corporate manager of research and development at Hughes Aircraft Company in Los Angeles, California, from 1986 to 1988. He spent the latter half of his career with various corporations, such as Raytheon Missile Systems Company and Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, having been a consulting statistician with ReVelle Solutions, LLC, in Santa Ana, California, since 1999 and an adjunct faculty at the University of California, Irvine, since 2008.

As an author, he published Quantitative Methods for Managerial Decisions (1978), Safety Training Methods (1980), The Two-Day Statistician: An Introduction to Statistical Quality Control (1984), The New Quality Technology: An Introduction to Quality Function Deployment and the Taguchi Methods (1988), Policy Deployment (1993), The Executive’s Handbook on Quality Function Deployment (1994), etc.

Achievements

• Jack B. ReVelle is best known for his contribution to multiple career fields, including the military, academia, industry, consulting, webinars, webcasts, telecasts, and publishing, among other professions. He is listed in Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, and as an Outstanding Educator in The International Who's Who in Quality. ReVelle was awarded the Dorian Shainin Medal by the ASQ in 2012 and the Simon Collier Quality Award by the ASQ-Los Angeles Section 700 in 2015.
  
  In 2016, ReVelle was inducted into the Oklahoma State University CEAT Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma State University Cowboy Academy of Industrial Engineering and Management.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Manufacturing Handbook of Best Practices: An Innovation, Productivity, and Quality Focus

    (Manufacturing Handbook of Best Practices: An Innovation, ...)

    2002
  • The Strategic Planning and Deployment Excellence System (SPADES): Ensuring Complete Success from Strategic Plan Development to Deployment

    (The Strategic Planning and Deployment Excellence System (...)

    2020
  • What Your Quality Guru Never Told You

    (What Your Quality Guru Never Told You is an easy-to-read ...)

    2000
  • Quality Essentials: A Reference Guide from A to Z

    (This unique book includes a collection of concepts and to...)

    2004
  • Safety Training Methods: Practical Solutions for the Next Millennium

    (A revision of the book used to train workers throughout i...)

    1980
  • The QFD Handbook

    (Everything you need to design, implement, and manage a su...)

    1998
  • From Concept to Customer: The Practical Guide to Integrated Product and Process Development, and Business Process Reengineering

    (Repeat business. It's the core of a thriving business. Bu...)

    1995
  • Quantitative Methods for Managerial Decisions 1978
  • The Executive's Handbook on Quality Function Deployment 1994
  • Home Builder's Guide to Continuous Improvement: Schedule, Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Cost, and Safety 2009

Membership

Jack B. ReVelle was a fellow of the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering (from 1963 to 2018), the American Society for Quality (from 1982 to 2018), and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (from 1963 to 2016). He is also a member of the Association for Quality and Participation, the American Statistical Association, the American Society of Safety Engineers, Sigma Tau, Alpha Pi Mu, Alpha Iota Delta, and Beta Gamma Sigma.

Connections

On August 2, 1968, Jack B. ReVelle married Brenda L. Newcombe, an attorney. They have a daughter, Karen A. Jack has another daughter from a previous relationship.

Father:

Mark A. ReVelle

Mother:

Myril B. ReVelle

Spouse:

Brenda L. Newcombe

Daughter:

Karen A. ReVelle

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2011
• The Page of Jack B. ReVelle on Linkedin