In 2000, Dick Morley and I gave talks at AMT's Annual Meeting in Puerto Rico. I was speaking on the Internet and Dick was giving one of his incredible talks on manufacturing. Dick and I had lunch in Puerto Rico and we discussed open source and manufacturing. When I got back to the DC area, I sent Dick a copy of Eric Raymond's book, The Cathedral and the Bazaar.
Fast Forward 14 years. Dick is now a Director at Memex Automation. When I asked how we were asking Dick to help Memex Automation, outside of the duties of being a Director, we were not working with Dick as closely as I would have thought. I told Dave McPhail, our CEO, that I would like to reach out to Dick. Thomas Smeenk, our VP of BD at Memex Automation, reached out to Dick. Dick was very generous and said he would enjoy it if I made the trip up to New Hampshire to visit him.
Below is from Dick's homepage at TheBarn.org:
"Dick Morley is best known as the father of the programmable controller and is the leading visionary in the field of advanced technological development. He is also an entrepreneur whose consistent successes in the founding of high technology companies has been demonstrated through more than three decades of revolutionary achievements. Mr. Morley is the recipient of the Franklin Institute's prestigious Howard N. Potts Award and is an inductee of the Automation Hall of Fame. He holds more than twenty US and foreign patents, including those for the parallel inference machine, the hand-held terminal, the programmable logic controller and magnetic thin film. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Board of National Center of Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS), Director at Large for the Society Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and a member of the Manufacturing Advisory Board for Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
Using his studies in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a springboard, Dick Morley has become an internationally recognized pioneer in the fields of computer design, artificial intelligence, automation and technology trend forecasting. As an inventor, author, consultant and engineer Dick Morley has provided the Research and Development community with world changing innovations.
For many years, Dick Morley was a contributing columnist to Manufacturing Systems Magazine. He has also written articles for magazines and journals worldwide including Manufacturing Automation Magazine. In recognition for his ground breaking contributions, Mr. Morley has received numerous awards and honors from such diverse groups as Inc. Magazine (Entrepreneur of the Year), Society of Manufacturing Engineers (Albert M. Sargent Progress Award)"
I flew up to see Dick this past Tuesday the 19th. We discussed mostly physics - which was fascinating for me. We then went into a variety of topics and then discussed Memex Automation and where we should take the technology.
Above is Dick and I having lunch at a GREAT restaurant near his house called, Parkers Maple Barn. Dick drew out on the back of the placemat how he invented the PLC. Below is a photo of that placemat. That was a lunch I will never forget.
Below is Dick in The Barn after we got back from lunch. I gave him a copy of my book (on the table) MTConnect: To Measure Is To Know, since MTConnect is very important to Memex Automation and manufacturing. It was a GREAT day and I am extremely glad that Dick wants to work closely with me and Memex Automation!
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