At a meeting of the System Safety Society at the engineering offices of A-P-T Research, Huntsville, on September 21, Mayor Loretta Spencer proclaimed our city as the International Center of Excellence for the practice of System Safety Engineering. She stated, “Huntsville is one of the world’s preeminent research and engineering communities, providing technological leadership and state-of-the art hardware, software, and systems for the free world. This community of system safety engineering practitioners has grown to be known throughout the world as having developed technology, practices, and leadership that establishes the state of the art for ensuring safety of complex systems. The expertise and leadership residing in Huntsville is nationally recognized and includes dozens of acknowledged international leaders in the discipline of system safety engineering and risk management.”

Leaders of the Huntsville system safety community joined to witness the Mayor recognize the excellence with the community. From right to left: Herb Shivers, NASA System Safety Warrant Holder; John Frost, AMCOM Safety Director; Gary Braman, President of Tennessee Valley Chapter of the System Safety Society; Coy Newton, Hernandez Engineering; Dave West, SAIC Safety Program Manager; Larry Jones, National President of the System Safety Society; Pat Vittitow, SMDC Safety Office; Tom Pfitzer, President of A-P-T Research, Inc.; and center, Loretta Spencer, Mayor of Huntsville, AL.

Proclamation

Whereas, Huntsville, Alabama is one of the world’s preeminent research and engineering communities, providing technological leadership and state-of-the-art hardware, software, and systems for the free world, and

Whereas, consideration for the safety of rockets, missiles, aircraft, space, and other technology developed by Huntsville-based government and industry organizations has been paramount to ensure the lowest possible risk to system users, to the public, and to the environment, and

Whereas, during Huntsville’s more than half-century history of world leadership in research and engineering, local industry and government organizations both have played major roles in developing a community of practitioners in the discipline of System Safety Engineering with the specific goal of identifying, assessing, and controlling safety risks associated with high technology systems, and

Whereas, this community of System Safety Engineering practitioners has grown to be known throughout the world as having developed technology, practices, and leadership that establishes the state of the art for ensuring safety of complex systems, and

Whereas, the expertise and leadership residing in Huntsville is nationally recognized and includes dozens of acknowledged international leaders in the discipline of System Safety Engineering and risk management, and a workforce of over 400 scientists, engineers, and analysts supporting System Safety Engineering and associated disciplines, and

Whereas, Huntsville is home to the Tennessee Valley Chapter of the System Safety Society, which has been named the International Society’s “Chapter of the Year” for six of the last eight years, and

Whereas, numerous Government and industry organizations with international reputations for excellence in System Safety Engineering are based in Huntsville.

Now therefore, I, Loretta Spencer, Mayor of the City of Huntsville, Alabama, declare Huntsville, Alabama to be the International Center of Excellence for the practice of System Safety Engineering.

Loretta Spencer, Mayor of Huntsville, Alabama
Dated this the 16th day of September.