Induction: November 2013

For 20 years John was the oil that made the VITA Standards Organization (VSO) machine run smoothly. He oversaw the members’ development of more than 70 ANSI-recognized standards that are part of critical embedded systems used throughout the world. Under John’s guidance, the VSO became ANSI accredited, becoming the benchmark organization for many of its policies and procedures. John personally trained hundreds of engineers on the VMEbus specification that set the standard for open standards. He has done all of this tirelessly and effectively over his years of service to the industry. For his contributions, John is the first inductee into the VITA Technologies Hall of Fame.

John Rynearson was a co-founder of Mizar in 1982 and took on the role of vice president of engineering. In 1987 John took on his first leadership role at VITA as chairman of the VITA software subcommittee. The committee had the challenge to work on a Real-time Kernel Interface Definition (RKID), unifying the many different options in real-time kernel interfaces that existed at the time.

In December of 1993 John became the technical director of VITA, starting a 20-year career with the company. In his role as technical director, John has patiently participated in countless VITA Standards Organization (VSO) meetings, working group conference calls, and ANSI audits. He also maintained the VITA website and for several years authored the standards update columns in VME and Critical Systems magazine.

Key Contributions

• Transitioning VITA from paper to the Internet as the VITA website administrator
• Conducting VMEbus training courses
• VITA standards administrator, managing the members’ development of more than 70 ANSI-recognized standards
• Instituting ANSI procedures and implementing the ANSI process that enabled ANSI accreditation for VITA specifications
• Administering regular ANSI audits of the VITA policies and procedures
• Overseeing VITA’s ITAR and patent policies, including implementing the ex-anti patent policy that makes VITA a leader in such policies as it applied to standards developer organizations
• Secretary of VITA Board of Directors
• Administrator for VITA conferences such as Bus and Board, CoolCon, and Military Embedded Electronics and Computing Conference (MEECC)
• Handling countless questions on VITA specifications

Employment History

• 1993 - 2014: Technical Director, VITA
• 1982 - 1992: Vice President of Engineering and Founder, MIZAR

Education

• 1965 - 1969: Purdue University, Masters in Electrical Engineering

Quotes

"I have been truly blessed to have John as the technical director of VITA during my tenure. It has been a privilege to work with John. I have great respect for his integrity and skills, and I could not have asked for a better person to be the technical director of VITA."

Ray Alderman, VITA, Executive Director

"I have enjoyed working with John over the past nine years. His intimate knowledge of the VSO’s policies and operations coupled with his amazing organizational skills have been crucial in helping me to fulfill the roles and responsibilities of Chairman, and are directly responsible for the smooth operation of the organization. I wish John all the best in his retirement."

Dean Holman, Chairman of the VITA Standards Organization and Director of Global Support Services and Sustaining Engineering at Mercury Systems