In a career that spans some 54 years to date, the name of Ira J. Hirsh has been associated with significant scientific contributions to psychoacoustics, outstanding mentoring of research scientists, and dedicated service to the fields of acoustics, audiology, and psychology. It is a career that can be traced by acronyms that are part of the daily vocabulary of hearing scientists. These include acronyms of location: Early work at the Psychoacoustics Laboratory at Harvard (PAL), a long tenure in research at the Central Institute for the Deaf (CID), service as faculty member, chair, and dean at Washington University (WashU); acronyms of professional societies that have honored him: Acoustical Society of America (ASA), International Commission of Acoustics (ICA), American Psychological Association (APA), American Psychological Society (APS), American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); acronyms of his service to the National Academy of Science: National Research Council (NRC), Commission on Behavioral and Social Science and Education (CBASSE); and acronyms of his contributions to psychoacoustics: Masking Level Difference (MLD), Temporal Order Judgments (TOJ). In large part, these acronyms are part of our vocabulary because of Ira’s contributions, and tracing them over the past half-century yields a substantive look at the development of the field of hearing science.