C. West Churchman

Charles West Churchman ( born August 29, 1913 in Philadelphia, † March 21, 2004 in Bolinas, California ) was an American philosopher and systems scientist.

Churchman studied philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1938 with a doctorate. From 1958 to 1996 he was professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He received three honorary doctorates: in 1974 from Washington University in St. Louis in 1984 from Lund University, and in 1986 by the University of Umea.

Together with his former doctoral student Russell Ackoff and Arnoff Leonard, he wrote at the Case Institute of Technology, one of the first textbooks on Operations Research ( Introduction to Operations Research, 1957).

C. West Churchman and his wife Gloria had a son.