“You’re a woman – he’s the kind of Russian that won’t talk to you” was the first thing Ellen ever said to me at an Amsterdam conference on TRIZ software. We watched the arrogant twitch of the retreating leather jacketed back and Ellen took my hand which I was still uselessly holding out. From that moment we became colleagues, friends and TRIZ collaborators until Ellen’s death in a diving accident last week age 79.
Ellen Domb was the most influential, innovative TRIZ person in the USA and far beyond. She ensured that USA industry could benefit from this amazing toolkit by investing not just her career as a top engineer, but by making it accessible to everyone. She did much more than teach, encourage and inspire others, she also created the first readable translations from the Russian, co-authored a great and successful TRIZ book and ensured people knew how to apply TRIZ to their toughest problems.
Ellen was brought up in New Jersey, and graduated from MIT, and was awarded her Ph. D from Temple University and worked then as an assistant professor of physics at Harvey Mudd College in California. Ellen and her devoted husband Bill (an ‘item’ from the age of 13, with a wedding before graduation) bought a plane (they both had pilot licenses) and also shared along a lifelong passion for scuba diving. Ellen was wooed away from academia, to participate in the exciting advances in industry first working on electro optics at General Dynamics then later on management of R&D, IT, and strategy.
In 1991 she founded the PQR Consulting Group initially specialising in strategy and
organisational improvement until she came across TRIZ in 1996 and the rest is history – especially for the TRIZ world. She founded and ran the TRIZ journal and was the most effective TRIZ missionary in the Western world. She inspired many to devote their careers to TRIZ after they attended her lively, brilliant, participative public TRIZ courses in California or in-house in companies all over the world. She created many wonderful TRIZ team exercises which the ‘Use TRIZ to save the Titanic’ is the most famous.
Ellen was always kind, generous and collaborative. At TRIZ conferences she would attend the least popular sessions to encourage those presenting their first TRIZ paper. She always asked searching questions to show someone was listening. This is a conference habit I try and emulate, and when with Ellen at conferences there was never a dull moment. She encouraged us to avoid the bland conference accommodation and I stayed in many quirky hostelries with her (both brilliant and terrible). She had boundless energy and I walked miles with her to experience local colour, in many cities of the world. She was clever, wise and good and I (and so many others) will always miss her.
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