Douglas Harris

Doug Harris was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, one year into the Great Depression. He witnessed the hardships of that period during his early years as the child of aviation pioneers. His father flew a surplus WWI Jenny in air shows and as a “barnstormer” and then began an aerial mapping service. Doug’s father would fly the plane while his mother operated the camera that protruded from the underside of the fuselage. The family traveled around the country, from job to job, towing a small travel trailer in which they lived. Doug attended 25 different elementary schools and he later explained that he began drawing cartoons to amuse his classmates, which usually forestalled the customary beating of the new kid. Doug lived with an aunt in Iowa beginning in the 9th grade so he could attend high school in one place. He drew cartoons for his school newspaper, he picked strawberries to earn extra money, and he contracted polio. Polio disabled and killed tens of thousands of children in the US every summer until vaccines were developed in 1955. Doug persevered, overcame the effects, and rarely spoke of it again.

Doug graduated from Iowa State University on a Navy scholarship with a degree in Industrial Psychology. He then deployed to Korea as a lieutenant where he volunteered for UDT training (Underwater Demolition Team, predecessors of the Navy SEALs), even though he did not know how to swim when he entered the service. Doug used GI benefits to earn a PhD in Industrial Psychology from Purdue University in 1959. He then worked for Human Factors Research, Inc., in Goleta, and Rockwell International, in Downey, before forming Anacapa Sciences, Inc., in 1969, along with Jim McGrath and Ted Parker.

Doug served as president of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) (1983-1984) and as associate editor of the journal Human Factors (1968-1987). He received the Jack Kraft Innovator Award from the HFES in 1975 for adapting link analysis, a technique used by Human Factors specialists, to the analysis of criminal and national security intelligence. Doug, Walter Harper, and Richard Fuller developed additional methods to help understand and explain complex criminal conspiracies and then offered training courses in their use. Those methods and courses revolutionized the field of intelligence analysis. Beginning in 1972, instructors from Anacapa Sciences, Inc., taught agents and analysts from local, state, and national law enforcement agencies (and from all branches of the military) in the use of the methods. Eventually, courses were taught for the London Metropolitan Police (i.e., Scotland Yard) and in many other countries under contract to the United Nations and US State Department.

Doug was a Fellow of the HFES, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society, and he served as Director and Vice President of the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics (1994-1998). He also served on several committees of the National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering.

Doug was an athlete, despite his bout with polio, taking ocean swims and long bike rides well into his eighties. Most endearing, for many years Doug created amusing birthday cards, which are treasured by his family, friends, and colleagues, and his artistic production increased after he retired. Dr. Douglas Harris was a father, scientist, businessman, esteemed leader, mentor, and artist. He passed peacefully on 27 February 2024 in Port Townsend, Washington, with his daughters, Kim and Robin, by his side.