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OCR for page 166
168
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Space Administration, Central Intelligence Agency, and Arms Con-
trol and Disarmament Agency.
Dr. Ling's most extensive involvement was with the Nike series of
antiaircraft and antimissile systems. None of these systems was with-
out critics, and the antimissile systems were focuses of controversy. It
reflects on the respect in which Dr. Ling was held that he, almost
alone among employees working on these projects, frequently served
on advisory groups convened to review the projects.
Donald Percy Ling was born January 2, 1912, in Albany, New
York, and he attended the public schools of Albany. He entered
Amherst College in 1928 andlater studied piano at the Eastman
School of Music in Rochester, returning to graduate from Amherst
in 1933 with a B.A. in mathematics. For the next year he studied
classical applied mathematics in Cambridge, England. He taught in
private schools in New England for three years and then entered
Columbia, where he received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in mathe-
matics, and also taught part of the time.
In 1944 and 1945 he worked on aerial gunnery problems with the
Applied Mathematics Panel of the National Defense Research Com-
mittee. In 1945 Dr. Ling was hired by Bell Laboratories as a
research mathematician and was a member of the (then) Mathemat-
ical Research Department headed by H. W. Bode. He immediately
joined a team that included fellow mathematicians Bode and John
W. Tukey and other physicists and engineers, who prepared a
detailed study of a possible antiaircraft guided missile system for the
Army. The study broke new technical ground in analyzing the aero-
dynamic control of supersonic vehicles, and it challenged conven-
tional wisdom about sensors and about where the control loops
should be closed. It also broke new ground among military "systems
analyses" of the period in the scope of issues covered and in its
penetration of these issues. From this study came the Nike series of
guided missile systems.
Dr. Ling remained a member of the mathematical research organ-
ization at Bell Laboratories for the next thirteen years. During much
of that time he consulted with Nike projects. He himself did the first
design of a warhead for Nike Ajax, a controlled fragmentation
device. During the flight tests of Ajax, he spent weeks at a time at the
OCR for page 167
/
DONALD PERCY LING
1912-1981
BY BROCKWAY MCMILLAN
DONALD P. LING died at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
on July 14, 1981. Dr. Ling retired as Vice-President of Bell Labora-
tories in 1971. Because of his expertise, his thoughtful judgment,
and his selfless willingness to probe into questions brought before
him, he was widely known and highly respected in government and
military circles and among his engineering colleagues. He had been
a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1967.
Educated in languages, music, and mathematics, Dr. Ling spent
much of his professional life either working as an engineer or work-
ing with engineers. His practice centered on the large, real-time
control system. He combined his knowledge of the diverse technolo-
gies at issue with the attitude and instincts of a systems engineer. He
left his mark on the structure as well as on the details of most systems
with which he dealt this was possible because of his understanding
of the complex interactive effects that govern the performance and
plague the design of large systems. His best-known work was with
guided missile systems, and many of his important contributions are
therefore scattered in classified memorandums and reports that have
not been published.
During his career Dr. Ling served on literally dozens of commit-
tees and advisory panels to the U.S. Government ten panels alone
of the President's Science Advisory Committee during the first half
of the 1960s. During the same period he served on other groups that
advised the Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and
167
OCR for page 168
168
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Space Administration, Central Intelligence Agency, and Arms Con-
trol and Disarmament Agency.
Dr. Ling's most extensive involvement was with the Nike series of
antiaircraft and antimissile systems. None of these systems was with-
out critics, and the antimissile systems were focuses of controversy. It
reflects on the respect in which Dr. Ling was held that he, almost
alone among employees working on these projects, frequently served
on advisory groups convened to review the projects.
Donald Percy Ling was born January 2, 1912, in Albany, New
York, and he attended the public schools of Albany. He entered
Amherst College in 1928 andlater studied piano at the Eastman
School of Music in Rochester, returning to graduate from Amherst
in 1933 with a B.A. in mathematics. For the next year he studied
classical applied mathematics in Cambridge, England. He taught in
private schools in New England for three years and then entered
Columbia, where he received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in mathe-
matics, and also taught part of the time.
In 1944 and 1945 he worked on aerial gunnery problems with the
Applied Mathematics Panel of the National Defense Research Com-
mittee. In 1945 Dr. Ling was hired by Bell Laboratories as a
research mathematician and was a member of the (then) Mathemat-
ical Research Department headed by H. W. Bode. He immediately
joined a team that included fellow mathematicians Bode and John
W. Tukey and other physicists and engineers, who prepared a
detailed study of a possible antiaircraft guided missile system for the
Army. The study broke new technical ground in analyzing the aero-
dynamic control of supersonic vehicles, and it challenged conven-
tional wisdom about sensors and about where the control loops
should be closed. It also broke new ground among military "systems
analyses" of the period in the scope of issues covered and in its
penetration of these issues. From this study came the Nike series of
guided missile systems.
Dr. Ling remained a member of the mathematical research organ-
ization at Bell Laboratories for the next thirteen years. During much
of that time he consulted with Nike projects. He himself did the first
design of a warhead for Nike Ajax, a controlled fragmentation
device. During the flight tests of Ajax, he spent weeks at a time at the
OCR for page 169
DONALD PERCY LING
169
White Sands missile test range with engineers from both Bell Labs
and Douglas Aircraft Company, the subcontractor. It was in the
camaraderie of this field assignment, where everyone was learning,
that Don Ling the mathematician formed bonds of friendship and
respect, not only with the engineers of his own company but also
with their friendly rivals, whom they called "plumbers," from the
aircraft industry. He served as liaison between these two communi-
ties for the rest of his career.
The mathematical research organization at Bell Laboratories
grew in size and in the early 1950s was split into several units under
one director. Dr. Ling headed one of the research units. In his group
were Sydney Darlington, J. W. Tukey, and R. B. Blackman. The
guidance algorithms for Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules were designed
there, and the programs were written there for the first digital (and
solid-state) bombing and navigation computer (Tradic).
In 1958 Dr. Ling left the research organization to become Direc-
tor of Military Analysis, building up a group within a newly formed
. · ~ . · .
Organization tor military systems engineering. Anot ner promotion
in 1959 saw him reporting to the Vice-President for Military Sys-
tems Engineering, to which post he himself succeeded in 1967.
In 1959 studies began that led ultimately to the setting up of a
program, called Nike-X, to demonstrate an antimissile system that
used as a primary sensor a phased-array radar, tracking both
intruders (targets) and interceptors. Into 1962, under Dr. Ling's
direction, these studies were continued and compiled into a formal
report. The report, in several volumes, outlined the basic plan and
proportions of an antimissile system, detailed the development prob-
lems, and described a program to address them. The program thus
outlined was formally proposed by the Army to the Department of
Defense and was approved for initiation. For the next five years Dr.
Ling's organization pursued its analyses and consulted in developing
detailed objectives for the design of the demonstration system and
the conduct of its test. At the same time Dr. Ling was a principal
spokesman for Bell Laboratories and Western Electric, the prime
contractors, in reporting progress on Nike-X. He appeared regu-
larly in this role before the Secretary of Defense. He also appeared as
a spokesman for the Army and the Department of Defense before
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170
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
the President's Science Advisory Committee and other groups. It
speaks well of the objective quality of his reports that this record of
advocacy was not a bar to Dr. Ling's participation at other times in
reviews and critiques of the program.
Neither the inventor (there was none) nor, in any detailed sense,
the designer of Nike-X, Don Ling probably did as much to preserve
a sound balance among the many objectives of the demonstration
program as any individual. That these objectives were technically
defensible and that they remained the governing factors in the con-
duct of the program are important facts for which Dr. Ling and his
organization must be given much credit. In addition, Don Ling's
personal efforts as a detached and articulate spokesman did much to
keep the technical issues clear and separate from the often heated
and diffuse arguments about defense policies.
Dr. Ling left his mark on Bell Laboratories. His Military Analysis
group, handpicked from the start, grew to a vigorous and productive
unit. Its alumni have found their way into influential posts through-
out the company. He early recognized the need for a companywide
computing organization and was instrumental in the early decisions
that set it up and staffed it with competent people. As Chairman of
his company's influential Committee on Education, he initiated a
major expansion in the extent and variety of educational opportuni-
ties that the company offered to its employees.
Increasingly troubled by a weakening heart, Dr. Ling retired in
October 1971. At retirement he was concurrently the Vice-President
for Systems Research at Bell Laboratories and President of Bell
Comm, Inc. He moved to Albuquerque in the desert country that
he loved. He briefly undertook some consulting work for the Uni-
versity of New Mexico but not, as he had hoped, in matters related
to education.
Dr. Ling was a private man. Cultured, urbane, elegantly articu-
late, and gifted with a perceptive sense of humor, he met everyone
with courtesy and respect. He was gracious, almost courtly, in social
gatherings. But he reserved a private self that was rarely glimpsed.
His one marriage lasted only a few years. Alone in retirement, as his
health allowed he explored the desert, expanded his mineral collec-
tion, and spent time each day at his piano. Scholar and mathemati-
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DONALD PERCY LING
171
clan, he completed a project begun before retirement: the writing of
a serious technical book on modern mathematics for the nonmathe-
matical reader. His final draft manuscript was completed in 1980.
I last saw Donald Ling in March 1981. I called him from Socorro,
New Mexico, to ask if my wife and I could drop in. With character-
istic detachment and tact, he referred obliquely to his failing strength
and urged that we visit for a short while. In the event, the short while
stretched to three hours. We talked of his book, of his hopes for its
publication, of his music- he had strength only for short periods at
the piano of his mineral collection, of his health, of his daughter
and infant grandson. At our parting, we all knew it was our last.
Ever the gracious host, he saw us to the door, instructed us in finding
the highway, and bade us a cordial good-bye, just as he would have
done thirty years before.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
donald percy
