2006.11.25: November 25, 2006: Headlines: COS - Ethiopia: Country Directors - Ethiopia: Obituaries: Computers: Staff: New York Times: Obituary for Ethiopia Country Director Henry Donald Wilson
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2006.11.25: November 25, 2006: Headlines: COS - Ethiopia: Country Directors - Ethiopia: Obituaries: Computers: Staff: New York Times: Obituary for Ethiopia Country Director Henry Donald Wilson
Obituary for Ethiopia Country Director Henry Donald Wilson
Mr. Wilson graduated from Columbia Law School in 1948 and worked for two years as a lawyer before becoming a regional organizer for the United World Federalists, an international peace movement. In 1955, he joined the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York, and joined Arthur D. Little in 1960. Mr. Wilson took a leave from Arthur D. Little in 1964, when he was appointed by R. Sargent Shriver as a Peace Corps director in Ethiopia.
Obituary for Ethiopia Country Director Henry Donald Wilson
Donald Wilson, 82, Pioneer of a Database, Dies
By KATIE HAFNER
Published: November 25, 2006
H. Donald Wilson, who prepared the original business plan for what became Mead Data Central and its pioneering Lexis-Nexis database, died on Nov. 12 at his home in Mitchellville, Md. He was 82.
The cause was a heart attack, said his daughter Edith R. Wilson.
Mr. Wilson, a lawyer and business consultant, was a managing partner at Arthur D. Little, the management consulting firm, in the late 1960s when he wrote the plan for what later became Lexis-Nexis, an early computerized system for retrieving information.
In 1969, Mr. Wilson was asked by the Mead Corporation to assess a venture in computerized legal research that the company was considering. Mr. Wilson told his client that the searching of legal texts would be a useful tool for lawyers, as well as a promising business.
He not only recommended that the company pursue the venture but also outlined a marketing plan for persuading law firms to adopt the technology.
“Don knew how important it would be to be able to search through the full body of a judge’s opinion to see if there might be an argument that could become a new precedent,” said Gary A. Marple, a former colleague of Mr. Wilson at Arthur D. Little.
Mr. Wilson left Arthur D. Little in 1969 to become the first president, then vice chairman, of Mead Data Central.
A turning point for the acceptance of Lexis came in the early 1970s, when Mr. Wilson arranged for a skeptical audience at the Supreme Court to use the new system. The Lexis system found more cases than the court clerks found by using manual research methods.
After leaving Mead Data Central in 1973, Mr. Wilson became the business partner of Arthur Lessac, a voice teacher who had developed a sensory feedback vocal training method. Later in his life, Mr. Wilson focused much of his attention on text-to-speech technology based on Mr. Lessac’s approach to voice training.
The company they formed, Lessac Technologies Inc., where Mr. Wilson was chairman at the time of his death, has received five related patents. In 1993, Mr. Wilson became chairman of ConQuest Software, a company focused on information-retrieval for desktop computers.
Henry Donald Wilson was born on Nov. 21, 1923, in New Rochelle, N.Y., and raised in Scarsdale, N.Y., and South Harpswell, Me. His father, Andrew Wilson, was chairman of the County Trust Bank of Westchester.
Mr. Wilson was a freshman at Yale University when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, and he received his diploma in 1945 while serving in the Navy in the South Pacific.
Mr. Wilson graduated from Columbia Law School in 1948 and worked for two years as a lawyer before becoming a regional organizer for the United World Federalists, an international peace movement. In 1955, he joined the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York, and joined Arthur D. Little in 1960.
Mr. Wilson took a leave from Arthur D. Little in 1964, when he was appointed by R. Sargent Shriver as a Peace Corps director in Ethiopia.
In addition to his daughter Edith, of Alexandria, Va., Mr. Wilson is survived by his wife, Mary Louise B. Wilson, of Mitchellville; a son, Bice C. Wilson, of White Plains; another daughter, Anne B. Wilson, of San Diego; a brother, Stephen B. Wilson, of Key Largo, Fla.; and two grandsons.
In 1966, Mr. Wilson returned to Arthur D. Little. In the late 1960s, he wrote a study for the Port Authority of New York on the introduction of containerized shipping, then a new approach to the transportation of goods.
“He always said that they should have listened to his advice to introduce this innovation slowly because it had major labor implications,” said Edith Wilson, who is a senior adviser at the World Bank. “And when they did not, it resulted in major labor turmoil.”
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Headlines: November, 2006; Peace Corps Ethiopia; Directory of Ethiopia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Ethiopia RPCVs; Country Directors - Ethiopia; Obituaries; Computers; Staff
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Story Source: New York Times
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Ethiopia; Country Directors - Ethiopia; Obituaries; Computers; Staff
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