Carnegie Trustee Emeritus Edward Emil David Jr. Dies

Carnegie trustee emeritus Edward Emil David Jr., died on February 13, 2017, at the age of 92 at his home in Bedminster, New Jersey. He was an active trustee serving for almost 20 years from 1980 to 1997. He had been a trustee emeritus since then. David was a leader in government science policy and industrial research and development for over five decades.  

David was Science Advisor to President Richard Nixon and ran the White House Office of Science and Technology from 1970 until 1973, was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a Life Member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He was U.S. Representative to the NATO Science Committee and a member of the NASA Advisory Council.

Following his term as Science Advisor to the U.S. President, David led research and engineering for Gould, Inc. in the Chicago area during the mid-1970s. He joined Exxon Corporation in 1977 as President of Exxon Research and Engineering Company, where he remained until 1986 when he opened a consulting firm, EED Inc., to advise industry, government and universities on management of technology, research, and innovation. 

David received numerous honors and awards throughout his career, including several honorary degrees from leading universities, the Arthur M. Bueche Award from the NAE, the Delmer S. Fahrney Medal from the Franklin Institute, the Industrial Research Institute Medal, the North Carolina Award for Science, and others.

David was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. He spent most of his childhood in Atlanta, Georgia. After receiving his undergraduate electrical engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a brief stint in the U.S. Navy at the end of WWII, he completed his Ph.D. at MIT and joined Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, where he became an Executive Director for Research. In the mid-1960s, he was instrumental in developing a high school engineering literacy curriculum under the auspices of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and in collaboration with colleagues from both academe and industry. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Ann Hirshberg David, and his daughter, Nancy David Dillon of Virginia.