Harold Smalley founded the Society and served as its first executive director. While studying for his PhD, Smalley introduced methods improvement concepts and industrial engineering techniques to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. In 1952, he conducted a two-week workshop on hospital work simplification with Lillian Gilbreth and Ruth Kuehn. Smalley also was a member of the AHA Committee on Methods Improvement while at the University of Pittsburgh Health Center. He conducted methods improvement work at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and, as a result, recruited Edward Gerner in 1956. As interest grew in the newly founded profession, Smalley, Gerner and others met several times in the late 1950s in Baltimore and Atlantic City in conjunction with the annual Middle Atlantic Health Congress. Under Smalley's leadership, these meetings represented organizational development sessions for what was to become the Society. As a result, he always will be remembered for his foresight to lay the groundwork for the development of healthcare management systems professionals and for founding the organization representing them. In the late 50s, Smalley took a faculty position at Georgia Tech where he founded the Hospital Systems Research Group. In 1961, he established the first national office of the society there on the Georgia Tech campus. Smalley died in 1994.
Lillian Gilbreth is one of the first working female engineers to hold a PhD. Her doctorate in industrial psychology distinguishes her as an early, if not the first, industrial/organizational psychologist. She and her husband, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr., pioneered the field of industrial engineering, and specifically, motion study. Her teachings began to attract the attention of hospital leaders in the 1950s. She, Harold Smalley and Ruth Kuehn conducted a two-week workshop on hospital work simplification at the University of Connecticut in 1952. Gilbreth was named the 3rd honorary member of the Society in 1966. She and her husband have a permanent exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and her portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth are best known by the general public as the father and mother depicted in the book and movie "Cheaper By The Dozen." Gilbreth died in 1972.
Karl Bartscht served as an officer of the Society from 1965-1970. He was instrumental in promoting the objectives of the Society at the University of Michigan and setting up the Cooperative Information Center for Hospital Management Studies. He originally established the Hospital Systems Research Group at the University of Michigan in 1962; he also founded the Community Systems Foundation, dedicated to improving the quality of life through applied research and technical assistance to communities. In 1969, Bartscht established Chi System serving more than 1,000 clients until merging with Superior Consultant Holdings in the early 21st century. Bartscht's major contribution to achieving more effective health systems has been the development of hundreds of individuals who are successfully managing and/or consulting in the healthcare field. Bartscht is now retired.
George Deschambeau served as president of the Society twice, once in 1963 and again in 1967. During his term in 1963, the Society published its first research bulletin through the publications committee. In the course of his 1967 term, the Society hired its first paid secretary replacing the voluntary executive director position. George was a charter member elected treasurer at the Society's first national convention in 1962. In his first treasurer's report, Deschambeau reported income was $670 and expenses were $82.97 with a net of $587.03, for the period of March 31, 1960 through Oct. 4, 1961. Deschambeau died in 1990.
Edward Gerner was an early pioneer in hospital management engineering, contributing significantly to the founding of the Society and its development during the formative years. Gerner served as the Society's first president during 1961 and 1962. In 1956, Harold Smalley recruited Gerner from J&L Steel to work at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, which made Gerner the second hospital management engineer in the country and first to establish a management engineering department. He believed a need existed among practitioners to share experiences and knowledge, the tenet upon which the Society was established. In 1982, Gerner founded the Western Pennsylvania chapter; he also contributed to the History of HIMSS document published in 2007. The Edward J. Gerner HIMSS History Wall is named in honor of his many contributions to the Society and industry. Gerner died in 2007.
Addison Bennett was one of the 47 charter members to be initially inducted into the Society in 1961. He served as an officer on the board from 1965-1971 and as president from 1969 through 1970. During his year as president, the Society broadened membership requirements to include any person, regardless of educational qualifications, who was actively and substantially engaged in programs of research, education or professional practice in the field of hospital management systems. Bennett was a prolific writer and speaker on the subject of management engineering in hospitals, not only during the 1960s, but in subsequent decades. Bennett is now retired.
William Delamar is a charter member and served as an officer during the Society's inaugural year in 1961. He was president in 1964, when the Society moved from Georgia Tech to offices located with the Chicago Hospital Council. He served in a number of roles on the Society's board in the 1960s and 1970s and on the Legacy Work Group in 2007. Delamar spent his professional career as a hospital administrator and writer. Throughout his years in administration, he relied on the training and development of middle management teams in the organization, a strategy that Delamar said requires a particular type of top management willing to let department heads make broader decisions. Delamar is now retired.
Fred Green was a charter member of the Society and served as an officer on the board from 1963-1968. During his term as president in 1966, Green established a committee to negotiate a merger with the American Hospital Association, which the Society affiliated with on Dec. 15, 1966. Green also led the formation of the hospital division of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers, which was officially established on May 15, 1964. Active with the Society as a member of the Legacy Work Group in 2007, he helped create the History of HIMSS document. Green is now retired.
Edward Burnet was inducted into HIMSS as a charter member in 1961; he served as an officer of the organization from 1964-1966 and as president in 1965. Burnet was a pioneer in the 1960s in implementing IT in hospitals. In addition, Burnet served as president of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers in 1975. During this period, the Society and AIIE held back-to-back conferences to provide a forum for discussion of broad national health policy issues as well as specific technical and research concerns. Burnet is now retired.
John Freeman is the only charter member still active in HIMSS. He was president in 1968 and served in many other roles during the Society’s early years. With Harold Smalley, Freeman co-authored the book Hospital Industrial Engineering, a text frequently used and cited by early hospital management systems professionals. He founded the Health Systems Research Division at the University of Florida Medical Center. In later decades, he brought management engineering to a number of major hospitals while serving as president of Medicus Systems Corp, and while serving as resident of a company managing hospitals in Saudi Arabia, he introduced innovations in management systems and IT. Currently, Freeman is president of Arabian Careers Limited, an internet-based healthcare recruitment system in Hinsdale, Ill.
