Harold A. Wooster

Harold A. Wooster (1919-2005) was an American information specialist.

Life

Harold Abbott Wooster was born on Jan. 3, 1919 in in Hartford, CT. He graduated AB magna cum laude in chemistry from Syracuse University in 1939, then a master's degree in 1941 and a doctorate in physiological chemistry in 1943 at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. During World War II he worked for the National Defense Research Committee, Office of Scientific Research developing poison gases for the military at the University of Chicago's Toxicity Laboratory. After spending a year on a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1947 he became a senior fellow at Pittsburgh's Mellon Institute (now Carnegie-Mellon University). He researched nutritional and food biochemistry.

In 1956 Wooster joined the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in the 1960s, where he managed the principal Air Force basic research program in information science.

From 1970 Wooster moved to the National Library of Medicine's Lister Hill Center for Biomedical Communications as Chief, Research and Development Branch, 1970-1974 and Senior Information Scientist from 1974 until he retired in 1985. He and died on May 20, 2005 in Carlisle, PA.

Contributions

As chief of the information sciences division of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in the 1960s, Wooster awarded crucial early grants to many of the scientists and engineers whose research spurred the development of the Internet and personal computer. Grantees included Marvin Minsky, J.C.R. Licklider, Ted Nelson, and Douglas C. Engelbart.

At the National Library of Medicine he supervised experiments in telemedicine.

He was editor of the quarterly journal Nutritional Observatory.

Publications

• Microfiche 1969--a user study. [Arlington, Va., Air Force Office of Scientific Research], 1969. AFOSR 69-1847TR. [1]

He was editor of the quarterly journal Nutritional Observatory and wrote

• Nutritional Data With F. C. Blanck. Pittsburgh, PA: H.J. Heinz Co., 1950 and later eds. A reference guide that went through several editions. [2]
• A COSATI inventory of information sciences technology activities of certain United States government agencies. Washington, DC: Federal Council for Science and Technology (U.S.) Panel on Information Sciences Technology, 1966. [3]
• "The zoo and the jungle: A comparison of the information practoces of intelligence analysts and scientists." In: Information system science and technology; papers prepared for the Third Congress. Ed, by D, E. Walker. Washington, DC: Thompson Book Co., 1967. Reprinted in: ]

Williams, Robert Virgil, and Ben-Ami Lipetz, eds. Covert and overt: Recollecting and connecting intelligence service and information science. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc., 2005, pp 221-236.

Further reading

• Robert V. Williams, "Harold Abbott  Wooster: A Memorial Essay." Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, December, 2006.
• Lamb, Y. S. "Harold Wooster, 86; Computer Pioneer." [Obituary.] Washington Post (June 3, 2005). [4]

Papers

The family is (as of early 2006) deciding what to do with his professional papers