Linda Priscilla Beckerman

Linda was a close colleague when we were both at Lockheed Martin in Marietta, GA. She was one of the most creative people I have ever known, in the “How in the world did you think of that???” category. Let me give one example:

One day, the president of the company told our boss that he wanted the mail system fixed. This may not sound like much, but in a large organization like Lockheed, spread out over a number of buildings,

Linda was a close colleague when we were both at Lockheed Martin in Marietta, GA. She was one of the most creative people I have ever known, in the “How in the world did you think of that???” category. Let me give one example:

One day, the president of the company told our boss that he wanted the mail system fixed. This may not sound like much, but in a large organization like Lockheed, spread out over a number of buildings, mail was the lifeblood of the company. A few facts about the case:

-- This was well before the Internet, and our internal e-mail system was slow and cumbersome. Attachments were problematic at best.
-- It typically took between 3 days and never for physical mail to go between departments. Probably the origin of the term “snail mail.” We were not unique in this: At the IBM building downtown, employees on different floors were known to send company mail via FEDEX, that is, through Memphis.
-- We were a union shop, so it was an offense even for staffers to walk down the hall with company mail

What she did, which I thought was brilliant, was not design a better mail system, but come up with a process that got the unionized employees in the mail room to create (evolve might be better) a new system. How good was it? When 100% of our mail was routinely delivered the same day it was collected, we quit measuring. To better appreciate this, one of the first things I had been warned about in my company orientation session some five years earlier was the pitfalls of company mail.

Linda is probably best known on the Internet for a paper she wrote on the nature of war, “The Non-linear dynamics of war.” After leaving Lockheed Martin in 1989, Linda moved to Orlando, where she was, among other things, a game designer, dog walker, and ultimately head of a systems engineering effort for SAIC.

She was unique; she will be missed.

Linda you hold a special place in my heart. Meeting you by chance online over 10 years ago but friends by choice. I will sincerely miss you my friend. Visiting with you in the States bonded our friendship. Glen and I will always remember you fondly.

Love ya always, Khris xxx