Richard Saeks
Dr. Richard Saeks, of Chattanooga, an innovative scientist, engineer and teacher, died on Monday, October 12, 2009 from natural causes following a period of poor health. He was 68 years old.
He was born in Chicago on Nov. 30, 1941 to Morris George and Elsie Saeks. He was preceded in death by his parents and his only brother Jerrold Saeks.
He is survived by his sister-in-law, Joyce Saeks; a niece, Abby Markowitz and a nephew, Lorne Saeks, all of Chicago, Il.
Dr. Saeks was educated in the Chicago Public Schools and went on to get his BS in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University, MS in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University and Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Dick was the vice president and chief technology officer of Accurate Automation Corporation. For the past 17 years Dick had developed advanced systems for the government under grants and contracts from the Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and National Science Foundation.
He was a world-class electrical engineer who was an expert in control theory, fault diagnosis, systems theory and plasma technologies. As an international authority on control, large-scale systems, fault analysis, and mathematical system theory, Dr. Saeks had three patents on ion doping, sensor fusion and tiperon control systems. Professor Saeks also wrote four technical books Systems Theory and was the author of over 300 academic papers.
Prior to coming to Accurate Automation, he taught electrical engineering for 25 years in a number of distinguished positions in academe serving as Dean of Engineering and Motorola Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Arizona State University, and Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science at Texas Tech University.
He started his academic career at Notre Dame University. Dick was elected a fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and a Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was also elected to be president of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society.
He holds numerous honors including the IEEE Third Millennium Award and two Tibbetts Awards from the U.S. Small Business Administration. He has an inc 500 Award and is in Who's Who in America.
A memorial service will be held at a later date and will be announced by Heritage Funeral Home & Cremation Service, 7454 E. Brainerd Road.