Honorary Members
What is an Honorary Member?
Many originators of the modern quality industry have received honorary member status in ASQ. An honorary member is ASQ’s highest grade of membership bestowed upon individuals who have provided distinguished service to the quality profession or the allied arts and sciences. These individuals must be nominated by at least 10 members and the award must be approved unanimously by the board of directors.
Honorary Members
Walter A. Shewhart, known as the father of statistical quality control, was the first to be named an Honorary member; this occurred in 1947, a year after ASQ was founded. Two years later, George D. Edwards, the first president of ASQ, became the second Honorary member.
The next, Martin A. Brumbaugh, founder and first editor of Industrial Quality Control magazine, was named in 1960. A trio of new Honorary members was named in 1965: Simon Collier, a past president, Harold F. Dodge, known for his working in sampling, and Mason E. Wescott, mentor to a generation of applied statisticians.
In 1968, Joseph M. Juran, earned the distinction of Honorary Member. He earned more than 30 awards from organizations around the world, including ASQ's Edwards Medal and Brumbaugh and Grant Awards. He believed "It is most important that top management be quality-minded. In the absence of sincere manifestation of interest at the top, little will happen below."
Eugene L. Grant, a great teacher of quality control, and W. Edwards Deming, who fostered quality improvement on two continents, were added in 1970.
"The problem of developing statistical quality control professionals in kind and in quantity is a major assignment; it warrants top priority in our efforts and should be approached by every promising method." With those words, Ellis R. Ott capsulized a major part of his life work—work that earned him the status of ASQ Honorary member in 1978.
Harry G. Romig, an educator who was closely associated with Harold Dodge. Armand V. Feigenbaum, whose name became synonymous with the term "total quality control," and Kaoru Ishikawa, who helped develop a specifically Japanese quality strategy, became Honorary members in 1986.
William A. Golomski, a past president and distinguished educator, was honored in 1992. In 1996, Dorian Shainin was honored for a lifetime of achievement. Also added to the roll in 1996 was statistician George E.P. Box. Genichi Taguchi (1997) was known for developing a methodology to improve quality and reduce costs.
Author and educator J. Stuart Hunter became an Honorary member in 1998. Philip B. Crosby achieved Honorary membership in 2001. He is legendary for promoting the concept of "zero defects," and for defining quality as conformance to requirements. The next addition was Dr. Lloyd S. Nelson (2003), the founding editor of the Journal of Quality Technology and long-time author of the journal's "Technical Aids" feature.
In 2004 Dr. Frank M. Gryna and Dr. John D. Hromi became ASQ Honorary Members. Dr. Gryna may best be known as the co-author to Dr. Joseph Juran for the Juran Quality Handbook and Quality Planning and Analysis. Dr. Hromi was recognized for his exemplary service as a practitioner, educator, and consultant of quality management and applied statistics principles and techniques.
Dr. Yoshio Kondo joined his esteemed colleagues as an honorary member in May of 2004. Dr. Kondo was recognized for his exceptional contribution to the global quality community as a thought leader in the fields of human motivation and total quality management and his exemplary personal dedication to the promotion of quality throughout the world.
Dr. Yoji Akao joined his esteemed colleagues as an honorary member in November of 2009. Dr. Akao was recognized for his distinguished innovation in the development of methodologies for strategic quality management through the creation of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and promotion of Hoshin Kanri as significant business improvement practices to stimulate innovation and drive competitive breakthroughs.
Dr. Douglas C. Montgomery achieved ASQ Honorary membership in November 2013, being recognized for his multifaceted contributions to the science of quality and to the quality profession through leadership, books, research papers, teaching, consulting, and editorial work. Dr. Montgomery is also known for his far-reaching global impact books and papers on regression analysis, designed experimentation, process monitoring and control, engineering statistics, and response surface methods.
Dr. Noriaki Kano joined his esteemed colleagues as an honorary member in November 2014. Dr. Kano was recognized for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service to the global quality community through his teaching, coaching, consulting and promoting the methods of Japanese Total Quality Management and his invention and dissemination of the theory of Attractive Quality as a mental model for defining the customer-centered orientation to quality performance.
Also added to the roll in 2014 was Sister Mary Jean Ryan. Ryan was best known for her long-term inspirational leadership and unselfish sharing of distinguished contributions to the profession by significantly extending the reach of quality into healthcare and living a role model life that demonstrates the heart of quality in service to mankind.
Ronald D. Snee was elected as an Honorary Member in May 2017 for his role in advancing the application of statistical methods and reliable problem-solving methodologies by organizational leaders and team members across the globe in a wide cross-setting of industries in order to improve decision making and quality/process improvement and achieve performance excellence.
Dr. G. Geoffrey Vining was honored in November 2017. Dr. Vining was recognized for his extraordinary service to ASQ in addition to his exceptional ambassadorship and international outreach around the world.
Dr. Marcos E.J. Bertin was elected as an Honorary Member in November 2018 for his exceptional efforts and leadership to foster the reach and benefits of quality improvement internationally and for his executive leadership in advancing the role of quality in the corporate boardroom.
H. James Harrington and A. Blanton Godfrey became Honorary members in November 2019. A. Blanton Godfrey was recognized for his continuing leadership in developing, advocating and teaching the concepts and best practices of quality management and technologies in addition to advancing the application of statistical methods and reliable problem-solving methodologies across the globe. H. James Harrington was recognized for his outstanding visionary contributions in applying practical quality methodologies and business process improvement concepts around the world.
Dr. Gregory H. Watson was honored in May 2020 for a professional career fully dedicated to the global development, advancement, and promotion of the philosophy, principles, and methods of quality for the benefit of humanity.
Dr. Kenneth E. Case was honored in November 2020 for dedicated professionalism in the promotion of quality through a lifetime of educational and professional service as a technical maestro, an exceptional engineer among engineers, who enables others to reach their full potential through excellence in his teaching, mentoring, and coaching and through his extraordinary role model behavior as a practitioner of the quality arts and sciences.
Elizabeth Keim was elected as an Honorary member in February 2025 for consistent and supportive leadership in advancing quality management practices, innovation and sustainability over 40 years as evidenced by her renowned expertise in implementing improvement and business excellence methodologies nationally and internationally and throughout diverse industry sectors and corporation sizes, by dedication to mentoring future quality leaders, and by bringing complex methodologies down to a practical and applicable level to enlighten and stimulate improvement by quality professionals across the world.