Early Rand: Personalities and Projects as Recalled in the Alumni Bulletin

摘要

RAND's success was due to its having attracted early on people who were both bright and dedicated. In recruiting these people management tolerated some pretty strange idiosyncrasies. And the Air Force permitted projects that served the national interest, not just its provincial interests. The vehicle for capturing these recollections, the RAND Alumni Bulletin, exists because of the foresight and hard work of Milt Weiner, organizing president of the Alumni Association. Because alumni take pride in their own contribution to RAND's endeavors, whose aims they respect, they have contributed many useful reminiscences to the Bulletin. The contents of the Bulletin have been shaped by the Association's presidents, Milt Weiner, 1993- 1999, and Mary Jane Digby, 2000-present. An active Bulletin committee has helped, and editing has been done by Michele Welsing, Brett Grodeck and Steve Baeck. This report includes excerpts from the Bulletin (through Spring 2001) which tell about people at RAND of its first ten years as a corporation and about projects of its first twenty years.