The legacy of George S. Axelby [President's Message]

Our Society lost one of its dear friends and pioneers this past June. George S. Axelby died in his home after a prolonged illness. George Axelby was a graduate of the University of Connecticut and Yale and worked for Westinghouse in its Aerospace Division in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the founding editor of IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control in 1956 and the founding editor of the IFAC journal Automatica in 1968. He was a member of the first group of recipients of the IEEE Control Systems Society Distinguished Member Award in 1983, a recipient of the IFAC Outstanding Service Award, and a Fellow of the IEEE. However, this brief summary barely touches on the impact that George Axelby had on our field.