Russell Ackoff (1919 - 2009)

Russell Ackoff, the great systems thinker, passed away earlier this week.

http://ackoffcenter.blogs.com/ackoff_center_weblog/2009/10/russell-l-ackoff-management-consultant-systems-thinker-90.html

I've just finished reading Ackoff's Beating the System, a gentle, humours, thoughtful little book.  I wish I'd met him in person.

[via Wikipedia, I've just found 4 high quality, low resolution, videos of a lecture Russell Ackoff gave in 1990.  The 4 videos run for a few hours.]