Over the years since the announcement of VMEbus in 1981 there have been a great number of people who have made tremendous contributions to the innovation and advancement of many technologies that have been important to the critical and intelligent embedded computing industry. The intention of the VITA Technologies Hall of Fame is to honor and preserve the memory of the key contributors.
John Rynearson became the first inductee into the hall of fame at the November VSO meeting in front of his colleagues that he has worked with over the years.
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Exemplary service
John was a co-founder of Mizar in 1982 and took on the role of vice president of engineering. In 1987 John took on his first leadership role at VITA as chairman of the VITA software subcommittee. The committee had the challenge to work on a Real-time Kernel Interface Definition (RKID), unifying the many different options in real-time kernel interfaces that existed at the time.
In December of 1993 John became the technical director of VITA, starting a 20-year career with the organization. In his role as technical director, John has patiently participated in countless VSO meetings, working group conference calls, and ANSI audits.
Key contributions
- Transitioning VITA from paper to the Internet as the VITA website administrator
- Conducting VMEbus training courses
- VITA standards administrator, managing the members’ development of more than 70 ANSI-recognized standards
- Instituting ANSI procedures and implementing the process that enabled ANSI accreditation for VITA specifications
- Administering regular ANSI audits of the VITA policies and procedures
- Overseeing VITA’s ITAR and patent policies, including implementing the ex-ante patent policy that makes VITA a leader in such policies as it applied to standards developer organizations
- Secretary of VITA board of directors
- Administrator for VITA conferences such as Bus and Board, CoolCon, and Military Embedded Electronics and Computing Conference (MEECC)
- Handling countless questions on VITA specifications
“I have been truly blessed to have John as the technical director of VITA during my tenure,” stated Ray Alderman. “It has been a privilege to work with John. I have great respect for his integrity and skills, and I could not have asked for a better person to be the technical director of VITA.”
“I have enjoyed working with John over the past nine years,” stated Dean Holman, chairman of the VSO and director of global support services and sustaining engineering at Mercury Systems. “His intimate knowledge of the VSO’s policies and operations, coupled with his amazing organizational skills, have been crucial in helping me to fulfill the roles and responsibilities of chairman, and are directly responsible for the smooth operation of the organization. I wish John all the best in his retirement.”
John has been a great friend of mine over the years. It has been an honor learning and working with him as we advanced the cause of VMEbus and all the other technologies that have come out of VITA. John has always had a handle on the challenges and a vision for the future. He has promised me that he will stay available to be sure the transition to the next generation goes smoothly.
OpenSystems Media has established a website for the VITA Technologies Hall of Fame at www.opensystemsmedia.com/hall-of-fame/vita-technologies. Additional inductees will be introduced in January with the intention of adding more members each year. The guidelines for qualifications and submitting nominees will be posted on the website.