what Charles Francois has contributed to systems science, I think of three major contributions:

1. Charles was one of the key people behind the International Cybernetics Association in Namur, Belgium, which was a leading center for cybernetics research, particularly in the early years. Charles attended regularly and encouraged others to attend. He made sure that people in the field doing similar research met each other and exchanged ideas.
2. Charles was one of the founders, if not THE founder of organized cybernetics and systems research in Latin America. He held meetings, organized societies, and translated papers. He invited guest speakers, aroused the interest of people in the business community and generally "marketed" the systems sciences to anyone who would listen. I once gave a lecture in Buenos Aires that was attended by an amazingly large number of people. I do not know how Charles produced such a large turnout, but I was greatly impressed by his ability to stimulate widespread interest in systems science.
3. Charles published the first encyclopedia for the field. It is a remarkable achievement that clearly required years of effort.

And, of course, I should add that Charles is a very warm, kind, patient, and generous man. He is a friend and supporter to everyone in the systems movement. I have met him at many conferences. Each time he was introducing people to each other, praising people, and explaining the contributions that each person had made. He created new ideas by building relationships between people. I find it hard to imagine the systems movement without Charles. I think it is impossible to know just how important he has been to the field.

Stuart Umpleby

Stuart Umpleby

Research Program in Social and Organizational Learning
The George Washington University,
2101 F Street NW, Suite 201
Washington, DC 20052 USA
Tel: 202-994-1642, Fax: 202-994-3081

URL: www.gwu.edu/~umpleby

to find a person who has been successful in impacting the world, and who understands the processes by which he or she acts. Few even take the time for such reflection, being caught up in continuing action.

By his own report, Charles Francois was early-on a thoughtful actor in the world. Witnessing first hand the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany, he was able to anticipate the conflict that became World War II. After building a successful business in the Belgian Congo, he saw the coming demise of that country and attempted to warn key decision makers. (To their peril, they did not listen.) In Argentina he has witnessed again the risings storm of human conflict, and continues both to act and reflect on the world around him.

It’s difficult to know what kind of tribute would be fitting to honor the 80^th anniversary of such a person. Having lived and thought and shared his reflections, he has made the world a different place than it would have been – and continues to do so.

Lacking a fitting tribute, let me offer a simple one. Thank you, Charles, for what you have given to those around you, in many places in the world. For your insights and inspiration. For your dedication in creating your encyclopedia, which allows other thinkers of the world to better ground their dialogues with each other. And most of all, for continuing to care about a world that has not always made your life simple or comfortable.

Happy 80^th birthday, and many more to come.

Gary Metcalf

Gary Metcalf

InterConnections, LLC
Gary S. Metcalf, Ph.D. , President
606-324-8893
gmetcalf@interconnectionsllc.com
www.interconnectionsllc.com

I noticed Charles Francois at conferences. I heard him, and was a little curious. Who was this man? What was he doing?

Then I heard him talk of his vast project, the International Encyclopaedia of Cybernetics and Systems. Suddenly he fitted in.

I know Charles through this project. It is an amazing one. There is a very special gift that some have, which is to be able to summarise and synthesise many different positions into one coherent and enrichening whole, and this is what Charles does. To read the variety, breadth and depth of reference is to read a true scholar. To talk with him is even more impressive. He talks with an open and curious mind while building what he says and hears into the rich structure of his cross-referenced world, bringing all together into a whole.

I have written elsewhere in praise of the Encyclopaedia. But the man who can entertain opposites fairly, and bring them to live together in a civilized manner, is a great man. Perhaps Charles is best
thought of in terms of the generosity that lies behind this greatness: a generosity to people and to ideas. And to the expression of this in his Encyclopaedia, which entertains all positions with courtesy and without taking side, so the academic can responsibly come to his own conclusion.

There are other encyclopaedias and dictionaries available. But they are incomplete and, sometimes, very self-serving. Charles' encyclopaedia is both wide in range and honest. I hope it keeps on growing. It is a wonderful reflection of its maker.

Ranulph Glanville

Ranulph Glanville

School of Architecture + Design
RMIT University City Campus
GPO Box 2476V
Melbourne
Victoria 3001

met at the EMCSR in Vienna shortly after establishing the IFSR, when systems research was gaining publicity and followers not because of its scientific reputation, but for its usefulness. I think, about that time he decided to enlarge his collectionist's efforts for systems publications towards conceptualising the rapidly growing amount of valuable information in this questioned, questioning and all over problematic domain.
That is how his International Encyclopedia of Cybernetics and Systems Research came into being - first in the Spanish edition, later in the enlarged English one. And his is this central contribution in integrating the systems science community from the small national groups into the international one by gaining a common professional language.

Systems Research, Systems Sciences, logics and methodology of systems - as I sometimes generalize it for myself, bordering on or intersectioning with cybernetics and systems control, systems studies, general systems theory - are synonyms, which he summarised brilliantly in one word SYSTEMICS, placing it in one row with logics, mathematics, informatics, cybernetics, physics, ethics, aesthetics, etc.

Charles Francois follows our research efforts in still enlarging the concepts collection, thus, opening a broad road for the new generations to preserve, enhance and develop traditions in systemics.

Charles Francois' contributions include numerous conceptual publications and a long run organisational work - here I give the floor to my colleagues systems scientists and cyberneticians.

Magdalena A. Kalaidjieva