We mourn the death of
Professor Stafford Beer.

There are probably only two methods of painting an accurate picture of his life. Stafford Beer used one of the methods himself. He incorporated his key questions, observations, encounters, experiences and knowledge in his books and his other works. The other method would have been to have made a film about him. Unfortunately, because of his terminal illness, the film never came about. What we can still do is to give a brief sketch of his life on the basis of what we know about him.

Prof. Stafford Beer was the master of effective, holistic organization and complexity management. Giving an outline of his biography here would be an example of just that sort of reductionism that he spent the whole of his life fighting against. I can still see him sitting opposite me and smiling, while I struggle to find the right words to describe the sort of man he was. And I can hear him saying, "Why are you making so much effort? My legacy answers the question!". If it had been possible to summarize the decisive elements of his life without distorting it, he would certainly have done so himself.

Stafford Beer did not only issue warnings. He didn't only recognize the dangers to which society, its enterprises, organizations and institutions were exposed. He was also aware of its opportunities and chances, and didn't fail to highlight them. For this reason he received countless prominent awards from all around the world. But for him the greatest award of all would have been the one that he did not receive: for his ideas and solutions to be properly understood and taken up.

He was happy to renounce creature comforts, and did so particularly in the last decades of his life. Having moved to an uninviting area in Wales, called Cwarel Isaf, he fought to ensure that his thoughts and opinions were correctly and fully expressed and to complete his life's work using his last remaining tools. He was always open to dialog which aimed at increasing understanding of his work and making use of it. >> continued