Robert Everett

Robert (Bob) Everett was the first MITRE employee to rise to the position of President from within the organization. Before joining MITRE, he was a key contributor to Project Whirlwind at MIT’s Servomechanisms Laboratory, where he served as designer, and later engineer, in charge of logic design and development for the Whirlwind digital computer. He later became head of Division 6 of MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, where he oversaw the Semi-Automated Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense system design and test project; SAGE’s work was later transferred to MITRE and became MITRE’s first work product.

In 1958 he joined the newly-organized MITRE Corporation as its first Technical Director, and a year later assumed the role of Vice President of technical operations. In 1969 he was appointed MITRE’s third president. Under Everett’s leadership, MITRE’s original task of helping the Air Force implement the nation’s first semi-automatic air defense system evolved into work on overseas command, control, and communications systems; a national air traffic control system; the nation’s ground transportation system; and advanced information systems for various education, health, and other social agencies. In October 1989, President George H.W. Bush presented Everett with the National Medal of Technology, the nation’s highest honor in this area, for his work in real-time computer technologies and applications.

Everett retired in 1986 but continued to serve as a member of the MITRE Board of Trustees until his death in 2018.

Public Release #23-03271-6