David A. Schrady

Brief Biography

David A. Schrady is a former President of both the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) and the Military Operations Research Society (MORS).  Born in Akron, Ohio, Schrady was raised in Canton. Prior to starting his undergraduate education, he applied for a Naval Research Officers Training Corps Scholarship to attend Purdue University. While he got a principal appointment, Schrady received a better offer via his father from the Ford Motor Company and attended the Case Institute of Technology. Not wanting to be the traditional engineer, he was drawn to the university’s operations research program. Schrady remained at Case for graduate school, making full use of the opportunity to study under Russell A. Ackoff, John D. C. Little, Peter Fishburn, and Ellis A. Johnson, the latter of whom served on his doctoral committee.

Schrady was recruited by Jack Borsting to join the Operations Research Department at the Naval Postgraduate School upon receiving his PhD. Early into his NPS career, he played a role in changing the program’s curriculum and did research for the Supply Systems Command. In this capacity, Schrady worked primarily with inventory models for repairable items. This research came together in an influential article published in Naval Research Logistics Quarterly in which he gave a deterministic treatment of the reparable item inventory problem. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Navy was facing criticism from the Government Accountability Office for having misplaced too many materials. Schrady was tasked with working on inventory records accuracy. His data gave evidence to large scale theft that went previously unnoticed by Naval authorities. Schrady served as Provost and Academic Dean of NPS from 1980 to 1987, following his tenure as Dean of Academic Planning and Dean of the Information and Policy Sciences Division.

As Honorary Treasurer of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies, Schrady served on the Administrative Committee and ensured the fiscal soundness of four international conferences. Schrady spent three years as ORSA Treasurer in the late 1970s, helping save the organization from bankruptcy. In this capacity, he served as General Chair of 1977 TIMS/ORSA National Meeting in San Francisco and set up new revenue and cost control procedures. Other contributions to the professional operations research community include writing ORSA’s Careers in OR booklet, chairing the ORSA Education Committee, and organizing the ORSA/TIMS Visiting Lecture Program.

During his tenure as MORS President (1979-1980), Schrady was responsible for transferring the publication Phalanx from the ORSA Military Applications Section to be better handled by MORS. From there, he oversaw the establishment of Phalanx as the society’s official newsletter.

Schrady has earned numerous honors for his career contributions to operations research in the military. He is a recipient of the Vance R. Wanner Memorial Award of MORS and Jacinto Steinhardt Prize of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS) Military Applications Section for dedicated service and leadership in advancing military OR. Schrady was recognized for his dedicated membership and service to professional OR societies with the George E. Kimball Medal in 1994. He is also an elected Fellow of both MORS and INFORMS and a recipient of the British Operational Research Society’s Charles Goodeve Medal.

Other Biographies

INFORMS. Miser-Harris Presidential Gallery: David A. Schrady. Accessed May 13, 2015. (link) 

Sheldon R. (2011) Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Oral History Project Interview of David A. Schrady, FS. Military Operations Research, 16(1): 77-84. (link)