Look, kids! Real automation heroes!

Since then, Morely has had a hand in founding more than a dozen companies, and serves as a very popular high technology consultant to business and government. Recently, he made a new career as a manufacturing futurist, and serves as board chairman for the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS).

Morely also is a subscriber to the “give back and pay forward” school of life. He and his wife Shirley have had over 30 foster children during their 46 years of marriage, and he is a major driver in an angel investment group that targets young entrepreneurs for help.

While it is not true that Morely quit his real job to become a consultant because his employer insisted that he wear a suit and tie to work, it is true that he quit because his employer wouldn’t allow him flextime, so he could ski during the week and avoid the lift lines. Morely is a Harley-Davidson rider from way back, riding almost immediately after knee surgery, and he has a marvelously customized John Deere tractor, which he can drive over the Web.

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Wyman "Cy" Rutledge

“In the early days of process control,” Wyman “Cy” Rutledge remembers, “we began applying this method to papermaking at Mead Paper Corp. (now MeadWestvaco).” Rutledge was principal scientist for 35 years at Mead Research and Development in Chillicothe, Ohio.

During that time, his contributions to controlling the process of papermaking were enormous. Rutledge also taught math and physics at several universities in Ohio and New York, while continuing his career at Mead.

“We were familiar with the control work done by IBM and a steel company in Cleveland, and thought this could be applied to paper processes,” says Rutledge. “It was used for applying color, coatings, fillers and other additives in the papermaking process. Also it was extended to controlling the basis weight by means of a variable stock flow valve at the headbox.”

The information was fed back to controllers and the lab from a basis weight measurement at the reel. This information was used for studies, not just for feedback or feedforward control. According to Rutledge, this enabled Mead to move ahead of its competitors by supplying higher-quality paper to companies like Hallmark.

Rutledge then participated in installing one of the first computer-controlled paper machines, and the first one at Mead.

Over the years, until his retirement in 1990, Rutledge became one of the most effective theorists of process control as applied to papermaking, and his contributions to professional standards bodies are considerable. He contributed both to continuous process management and to batch process management, especially in the addition of and creation of additives. He was one of the principal founders and supporters of Miami University of Ohio’s Pulp and Paper Symposium, and received an honorary doctorate from the university.

Rutledge graduated from Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and earned both a M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He is, therefore, another lifetime process automation professional, who initially set out to do something entirely different—a typical occurrence in the field.

Rutledge continues to live in Chillicothe with his wife Mary, but his increasingly poor health in recent years has prevented him from coming to WBF to receive his award in person.

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Kathleen Waters

Process automation is now old enough to have more than one generation of heroes. Ed Bristol, Dick Morley and Cy Rutledge are from the first generation of modern process automation, while Kathleen Waters is a second-generation process automation hero. She has been a principal engineer with Genentech since 1991, and was previously with G. D. Searle (which became NutraSweet in 1984) from 1982 until 1991.

Waters has been responsible for many strategically important assignments in her career, including process systems software development, process information management systems, manufacturing execution systems, automation architecture and quality initiatives for systems supporting process development and cGMP operations. Note that her career starts where the groundbreaking developments of the first generation of automation heroes leave off.

Waters established a scalable automation architecture, enabling process and implementation standardization. She was an early adopter of plant-floor Ethernet, automation network segregation, and web-based data access. Her work relies heavily on industrial standards and benchmarking to establish models for implementation. She has worked repeatedly on compliance programs, collaboration and driving best practices.

Waters also led development of the S88.04 Batch Production Record standard, a reference model for batch production records, containing information about production of batches or other elements of production, and she currently is the ISA S88 committee’s vice chair, as well as a member of WBF.

In addition, Waters’ experience with batch processes gave her the ability to make S88.04 a true cross-industry standard, which has been adopted, not only by batch processing companies, but also by automation vendors, MES and ERP departments, and even by vendors like Microsoft, IBM and SAP. Her infectious energy, enthusiasm and sense of humor have made it possible for her to lead teams of disparate constituents to common goals and solutions. She listens well, which allows her to tread the minefields of modern standards efforts, and produce timely and relevant solutions to major process automation problems.

Waters loves to golf, ski, and like other Hall of Fame members, to garden. Oh, yes, one final thing about Waters. We’re pleased to note that she is the first woman to be inducted to the Process Automation Hall of Fame.