Frederick T. Andrews
- Birthdate
- 1926
- Birthplace
- Palmerton, PA, USA
- Death date
- 2013/09/18
- Associated organizations
- Bell Labs
- Fields of study
- Communications
- Awards
- IEEE Haraden Pratt Award
Biography
Frederick T. Andrews has been a member of IEEE for 50 years and one of its dedicated leaders for more than 35. A veteran of Bell Laboratories and Bellcore, his first active involvement was with the IEEE Communications Society, where he headed a working group on telephone testing standards in the early 1960s. During the 1970s, he served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Society and was chairman of its Transmissions Systems Committee. In 1982, he began a five-year tenure as Vice President and President of the Society. Since retiring from Bellcore in 1990, Mr. Andrews has devoted most of his professional expertise to serving IEEE as a volunteer.
As IEEE Division Director in 1992-1993, he became chairman of both the PABAB Electronic Products Committee and the IEEE Strategic Planning Committee. Under his leadership, these committees have made major strides in developing the IEEE/IEE Electronic Library product and have helped define the key strategic goals for the future of the Institute in the 21st century. Mr. Andrews, who continues his IEEE work as the 1998 chairman of Strategic Planning Committee, is also first vice president of the IEEE Foundation.
A native of Palmerton, Pennsylvania, Frederick Andrews was born in 1926 and received a B.S.in Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1948.
Joining Bell Laboratories right after graduation, he supervised part of the early development of a commercial system for local telephone trunk applications. As a Bell Laboratory Director from 1962 on, his work on subscriber loops led to a greatly increased penetration of electronics into the old technology, transforming it in the process. In 1979 he was appointed Executive Director, with responsibility to resolve the systems issues that lay behind the evolution of digital telephone networks. When Bellcore was created in 1984, Mr. Andrews was one of the founding corporate officers, helping the newly-created regional telephone companies to acquire technology for building and operating telecommunications networks.
A Fellow of the IEEE since 1973, Frederick Andrews was named a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1988. The awards he has received include the IEEE Award in International Communications (1985) and Telephony's Ray Blain Award for Outside Plant Achievement in 1991.
Mr. Andrews won the 1998 IEEE Haraden Pratt Award 'For sustained contributions and commitment to the Institute, particularly for leadership in strategic planning and electronic product development.'
Andrews died on September 18th, 2013.
Further Reading
