IN MEMORIAM
Associate Professor of Information Systems Thaddeus (Thad) W. Usowicz died of organ failure on Oct. 7 at the UCSF medical center.
Thad graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an S.B.M.E. (mechanical engineering) in 1965, an M.S. in management and his M.S.C.E. (transportation systems planning and analysis) in 1967. He served in the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star in 1971. Usowicz earned an M.S. in 1979 and a Ph.D. in 1991, both in medical information science, from the University of California, San Francisco. In 1980, he was certified as a professional engineer by the State of California. He was awarded a Fulbright Senior Lectureship Award in 1995, during which he served as professor of computer science at the Academy of Economics in Poznan, Poland. Thad began his career at SF State in 1983. The 2014 textbook "Human Factors of a Global Society: A System of Systems Perspective" lists Usowicz as a contributor.
A mass will be held for Thad on October 24 at 11 a.m. in the Nativity Church at 240 Fell Street, San Francisco. A reception folllows from 12:30 to 3 p.m. at Caffe della Stelle, 395 Hayes Street, San Francisco.