James S. Meditch, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington passed away in Seattle on September 23, 2003, following a long illness.

The early years of Professor Meditch's career include distinguished contributions to control and estimation theory. His widely known book, Stochastic Optimal Linear Estimation and Control (McGraw-Hill, 1969), was translated into Russian and Polish. His published research papers numbered more than 150, many co-authored with his graduate students or co-workers. His citation as a 1976 IEEE Fellow is "For contributions to the development and application of estimation theory." Dr. Meditch was the General Chairman of the 1977 JACC (predecessor to the ACC). He was Past President of the IEEE Control Systems Society in 1980 and was recognized by that Society with its Distinguished Member Award in 1983. He also served as editor of the IEEE Proceedings for three years and was awarded the IEEE Centennial Medal and Certificate in 1984.

Dr. Meditch received the BSEE degree from Purdue University in 1956, the SMEE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1957, and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue in 1961. He served as a Staff Engineer at the Aerospace Corporation for four years, as an Associate Professor at Northwestern University for one year and as a staff member at the Boeing Scientific Research Laboratories for four years. He joined the faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of California at Irvine in 1970 where he remained for seven years. During this period Dr. Meditch co-founded the Orincon Corporation and became its first Chief Executive Officer. In 1977 he joined the Electrical Engineering faculty at the University of Washington as Professor. He served as Chairman of that department for eight years and as Associate Dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering for three years, later retiring in 1998.

Early in his tenure at the University of Washington Professor Meditch developed an intense involvement in Computer Communication Networks. Over the next several years he published four dozen conference and archival papers in this field and initiated three undergraduate and three graduate courses in Digital Systems and Computer-Communication Networks. Fifteen of his graduate students wrote their MSEE theses, and ten wrote their Ph.D. dissertations in various aspects of digital communication networks during this period.

Throughout his professional career Dr. Meditch served as a consultant to many industrial firms, participated in numerous national and international conferences on Automatic Control and Computer Communications, lectured at numerous universities, and held visiting appointments at Stanford University, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the University of Tokyo, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Professor Meditch is survived by his wife Theresa Scott Meditch, his daughter Sandra Anne Meditch and son-in-law Eugene D. Marshall, by his son Dr. James S. Meditch Jr. and daughter-in-law Christina Ann Meditch, and by his grandchildren Lindsay Theresa Marshall, Reed Joseph Marshall, and Colin James Meditch.

Robert N. Clark
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Washington