43 Facts About Jerry Pournelle

Jerry Eugene Pournelle was an American scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers.

Jerry Pournelle's journalism focused primarily on the computer industry, astronomy, and space exploration.

Jerry Pournelle held paleoconservative political views, which were sometimes expressed in his fiction.

Jerry Pournelle was one of the founders of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy, which developed some of the Reagan Administration's space initiatives, including the earliest versions of what would become the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Jerry Pournelle was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the seat of Caddo Parish in northwestern Louisiana, and later lived with his family in Capleville, Tennessee, an unincorporated area near Memphis.

Percival Jerry Pournelle, his father, was a radio advertising executive and general manager of several radio stations.

Ruth Jerry Pournelle, his mother, was a teacher, although during World War II, she worked in a munitions factory.

Jerry Pournelle attended first grade at St Anne's Elementary School, in Memphis, which had two grades to a classroom.

Jerry Pournelle served in the United States Army during the Korean War.

Jerry Pournelle married Roberta Jane Isdell in 1959; the couple had five children.

In 2008, Jerry Pournelle battled a brain tumor, which appeared to respond favorably to radiation treatment.

Jerry Pournelle suffered a stroke on December 16,2014, for which he was hospitalized for a time.

Jerry Pournelle died in his sleep of heart failure at his home in Studio City, California, on September 8,2017.

Jerry Pournelle converted to Roman Catholicism while attending Christian Brothers College.

Jerry Pournelle was introduced to Malthusian principles upon reading the book Road to Survival by the ecologist William Vogt, who depicted an Earth denuded of species other than humans, all of them headed for squalor.

Jerry Pournelle eventually returned to religion, and for a number of years was a high church Anglican, in part because Anglican theology was virtually identical to Catholic theology, with the exception that the Anglicans accepted as moral the use of birth control.

Jerry Pournelle eventually returned to the Catholic Church, as his other beliefs were consistent with the Catholic communion, although he did not agree with the Church's position on birth control.

Jerry Pournelle wrote that Sunday attendance at St Francis de Sales Catholic Church, in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, was part of his family's routine.

Jerry Pournelle wrote numerous publications with Possony, including The Strategy of Technology.

Jerry Pournelle headed the Human Factors Laboratory at the Boeing Company, where his group did pioneering work on astronaut heat tolerance in extreme environments.

Jerry Pournelle's group did experimental work that resulted in certification of the passenger oxygen system for the Boeing 707 airplane.

Jerry Pournelle later worked as a Systems Analyst in a design and analysis group at Boeing, where he did strategic analysis of proposed new weapons systems.

In 1964, Jerry Pournelle joined the Aerospace Corporation in San Bernardino, California where he was Editor of Project 75, a major study of all ballistic missile technology for the purpose of making recommendations to the US Air Force on investment in technologies required to build the missile force to be deployed in 1975.

At North American Rockwell's Space Division, Jerry Pournelle was associate director of operations research, where he took part in the Apollo program and general operations.

Jerry Pournelle was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute.

Jerry Pournelle was among those who in 1968 signed a pro-Vietnam War advertisement in Galaxy Science Fiction.

Jerry Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973.

Years after Byte shuttered, Jerry Pournelle wrote his Chaos Manor column online.

Jerry Pournelle began fiction writing non-SF work under a pseudonym in 1965.

Jerry Pournelle wrote the "Computing at Chaos Manor" column in Byte.

Jerry Pournelle described his experiences with computer hardware and software, some purchased and some sent by vendors for review, at his home office.

Jerry Pournelle often denounced companies that announced vaporware, sarcastically writing that they would arrive "Real Soon Now", and those that used software copy protection.

Jerry Pournelle claimed to be the first author to have written a published book contribution using a word processor on a personal computer, in 1977.

Jerry Pournelle wrote the monthly column "The Micro Revolution" for Popular Computing from April 1984 until the magazine's closure in December 1985.

In 2011, Pournelle joined journalist Gina Smith, pundit John C Dvorak, political cartoonist Ted Rall, and several other Byte.

Jerry Pournelle said he resists using the term "blog" because he considered the word ugly, and because he maintained that his "View" is primarily a vehicle for writing rather than a collection of links.

Jerry Pournelle served as campaign research director for the mayoral campaign of 1969 for Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, working under campaign director Henry Salvatori.

Jerry Pournelle was later named Executive Assistant to the Mayor in charge of research in September 1969, but resigned from the position after two weeks.

Jerry Pournelle distinguished his conservativism from the alternative neoconservatism, noting that he had been drummed out of the Conservative movement by "the egregious Frum", referring to prominent neoconservative, David Frum.

Notably, Jerry Pournelle opposed the Gulf War and the Iraq War, maintaining that the money would be better spent developing energy technologies for the United States.

Jerry Pournelle created the Jerry Pournelle chart in his doctoral dissertation, a 2-dimensional coordinate system used to distinguish political ideologies.

Jerry Pournelle used the term "Pournelle's law" for the expression "One user, one CPU".

Jerry Pournelle later amended this to "One user, at least one CPU" in a column in InfoWorld.