Chester McKinney and the Acoustical Society of America: Over sixty years of service

Abstract

The impact of Chester McKinney on the Acoustical Society of America cannot be overstated. Chester served as a charter member of the Underwater Acoustics Technical Committee and was its first chair in 1956. He was the driving influence in making the ASA the professional home for underwater acousticians. He established three committees that still serve the society: Archives, Tutorials and Public Relations. He served on the Executive Council, the Medals and Awards Committee, the Committee on Meetings and the Nominating Committee among others. Chester went on to serve as vice-president and president of the society. In 1989, Chester pioneered a census of acousticians. He chaired the census ad-hoc committee, collected and organized the responses and reported the results in JASA [McKinney, Hurdle, and Blue, “A profile of the acoustics community in the United States and Canada,” J. Acous. Soc. Am., 91(2):1169–1179, 1992]. This census can now be compared with the statistics of today to track the growth of the society. Chester received the Gold Medal in 2004, the highest honor the society can bestow.