on Heirman, age 80, died on October 30, 2020 from complications due to Covid-19. He was born in Mishawaka, Indiana and after graduation from Purdue University and with his active military duty in the Pentagon, he started his professional career with Bell Laboratories in 1963 in New Jersey. He later became the manager of its Global Product Compliance Lab as a distinguished member the technical staff. Upon retirement from Bell Labs, he started his own consulting business—Don HEIRMAN Consultants—specializing in standards education and training in his discipline of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), in which he remained active until his death. He was a communicant of St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Lincroft, NJ for over 50 years, serving as an usher on Saturday night masses, singing in the choir on Sundays, and on the 50th anniversary committee in 2008 contributing a review of old photos taken of the parish and parishioners over those years and designing a lapel pin for the occasion.
In his early years, he attended St. Joseph Catholic Church and grade school in his home town of Mishawaka, Indiana, where he was born and where his parents who predeceased him, Agnes and Chester Heirman, lived for close to 60 years as his father worked for Uniroyal (Ball Band) for over 40 years. He then graduated from Mishawaka High School in 1958. His father also graduated from MHS in 1935. His mother graduated from Washington High School in South Bend, Indiana in 1938. At MHS Don was the editor-in-chief of the 1958 yearbook—The Miskodeed and photographer of the Newsletter—Alltold. He was a member of the National Honor Society, Junior Kiwanian, Science Club, Engineering Club, Quill and Scroll, Ushers Club, A Cappella Choir, and co-salutatorian of his senior class. He attended the class 50th reunion in July 2008 and enjoyed visiting with those he had not seen for those 50 years. It was there that his wife took ill with cancer that eventually she succumbed to in January 2009.
Upon receiving his BSEE in 1962, he was commissioned as an Ensign in the US Navy Reserves. He immediately attended grad school to earn his MSEE specializing in electromagnetic waves and propagation. He then started his active duty at the Pentagon in Arlington, VA where he was responsible for predicting HF radio propagation for ship to ship and ship to shore use each day. During his two year activity duty (1963-1965) he was on military leave from Bell Laboratories as he started there in the fall of 1963. During his tour of active duty he and his wife experienced the Washington events to honor President Kennedy when he was assassinated in November 1963. He recalled well those times of national tragedy and being at the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery as the caisson procession passed by within 15 feet of he and his wife on the way to the burial plot of the “eternal flame”. Don continued his Navy service after his active duty tour in the research reserves drilling on Wednesday evenings, one weekend a month, and two weeks active duty for training (each year) and retired in 1985 after over 20 years of service with the rank of Commander.
In 1963, he married Lois Smith on Purdue campus while in graduate school. He then reported for active duty in the Pentagon in the fall of 1963. Lois predeceased him in 2009 after 45 years of marriage. She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery where Don will be buried. This honor was a result of his serving his country in the Navy for over 20 years before he retired in 1985. His parents—Agnes (Horvath) and Chester—who lived for close to 60 years in Don’s home town of Mishawaka, Indiana, predeceased him in 2005 and 2004, respectively.
At the time of his death, he was President of Don HEIRMAN Consultants which was a training, standards, and educational electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) Consultation Corporation which he founded in 1997 after his early retirement from Bell Laboratories. Previously he was with Bell Laboratories for over 30 years in many EMC roles. He started working on predicting and then suppressing power line interference on telephone lines. A noteworthy activity was the work he did on the US Navy’s project Sanguine which was installed in northern Wisconsin and communicated with segments of the fleet worldwide. This extremely low frequency (ELF) system also coupled undesired ELF energy onto the local telephone plant which had to be mitigated. Don created the process on how the mitigation would work and then saw it implemented. Later his efforts turned to high frequency RF interference on telephone lines which led to his work on meeting regulatory RF interference requirements and being named Distinguished Member of Staff. During the last 13 years of his employment, he focused on product EMC regulatory compliance and was named senior EMC consultant eventually being promoted to Manager of Lucent Technologies (Bell Labs) Global Product Compliance Laboratory, which he founded, and where he was in charge of the Corporation’s major EMC and regulatory test facility and its participation in ANSI (American National Standards Institute) accredited standards and international EMC standardization committees. During the last year before he retired early from Bell Labs (Lucent Technologies), he was named adjunct professor and senior research scientist at the University of Oklahoma and Associate Director for the University’s Center for the Study of Wireless EMC. At the university he trained graduate students on EMC principles and testing as the Center studied the immunity of hearing aids to mobile phones used in close proximity. He continued his association with the Center for many years.
He also became heavily involved in standards beyond the EMC Society at the IEEE level starting in 1983. He held many positions including member, Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Standards Board, Chairman of the New Standards Committee, and Chairman of the Procedures Committee starting in the mid-1990s. When the standards department became the IEEE Standards Association (SA) in 1996, he rose from member of its Board of Governors to President of the SA in 2005-2006. With the latter position, he became a member of the IEEE Board of Directors and Executive Committee, a post he held in 2005 and 2006. Along the way he was a member of the IEEE Ethics and Member Conduct, the Publication Services and Products Board, and the Marketing and Sales committees.
Nationally, he has been a member of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards Committee C63® (EMC) since 1981 rising to subcommittee Chairman to then Chairman in 2006. His work there included standards on construction of regulatory compliance test facilities (which he authored a key standard on construction of special test sites which is still used today after being first published in 1988), accurate RF emission measurements, and immunity of TV receivers to RF interference.
Back in the United States, he joined several US Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) of the US National Committee (USNC) of the IEC including those associated with CISPR Subcommittees A and I as well as one associated with RF safety. This led to his being elected to the USNC Technical Management Committee in 2000 which he served at his death. His role there increased from voting member to group manager for electromagnetics responsible for supporting such TAGs as those for CISPR and TC77 (EMC with immunity focus) and others. He became Chair of the USNC TMC Coordinating Committee on EMC also in 2000 where he worked with US TAGs that had EMC activity in their standards.
He had leadership positions in other organizations such as his being President of the US National Cooperation for Laboratory Accreditation (NACLA). He also was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation where in recent years he was the Chairman of its EMC committee responsible for a major guidance document on the use of wireless technology in health care facilities. He also was a member of the Board of Directors of the US EMC Standards Corporation representing them on the USNC Technical Management Committee as well as a member of the executive committee of the Conformity Assessment Section of the American Council of Independent Laboratories. In the latter organization, he represented ACIL on the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel and its Testing and Certification Committee.
He has presented numerous workshops, tutorials, and technical papers internationally. Since 1973, the number of technical presentations and papers on a variety of EMC measurement related subjects and associated standards exceeded well over 60. He also gave close to 100 training courses in the US as well as in Europe. Finally, he is listed in several “Who’s Who” publications including Who’s Who in Technology, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering and Men of Achievement.
His contributions were vast to his EMC discipline where he has been called “Mr. EMC Standards”. He had chaired hundreds of meetings during his professional career that led him to jokingly state that his tombstone will say “no more meetings”! A complete review of his career is on his website at http://www.donheirman.com.
His final resting place will be at Arlington National Cemetery at the same plot as that of his wife Lois. It will be a military funeral ceremony.
In lieu of flowers, it is requested that donations be made to the American Diabetes Research Foundation, 1701 N. Beauregard Street, Alexandria, VA, 22311 or American Cancer Society, Eastern Division, Monmouth Unit, P. O. Box 5066, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034-5066.
