Willard Fazar


Willard R. Fazar was an American economist, Head of the Program Evaluation Branch at Special Projects Office, U.S. Navy, and author. He is known as one of co-inventors, and key-developers of PERT."

Biography

Born in 1915, Fazar studied economics at Cornell University, and obtained his Ms in Agriculture in 1936.
After graduation Fazar started his career in industry, and in his early career worked at Wall Street,R. H. Macy & Co and US Steel Export Co., and did industrial price research for the Government. In World War II he served in the army, and afterwards joined the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, D. C., where he was appointed chief of the food section.
In 1956 Fazar was appointed by US Navy Admiral William Raborn as director of the program evaluation branch of the special projects office of the Navy, and was charged to "overcome the management challenge presented by the Polaris program." Around 1967 Fazar was appointed at the U.S. Bureau of the Budget, where he worked in operations research.

Work

Development of PERT

After his appointment at the Special Projects Office as director of the program evaluation branch in 1956, Fazar played a key role in the development of PERT. James Jerome O'Brien summarized, the events that lead to that development:
About the organizational context and Fazar's performance Frederick I. Ordway once more summarized the circumstances in which PERT saw the first light of day and the participants involved :
Some basic concepts were introduced by Fazar and his team, as Ordway further explained:

Presentation of PERT

In a 1959 article in The American Statistician Fazar summarized the development of the Program evaluation and review technique in his own words, stating:

Reduction of R&D cycle

As member of the Polaris management team, Fazar in 1961 was cited in the Missiles and Rockets. journal explaining the power of PERT. He had stated:

Selected publications

;Articles, a selection: