American Society of Quality - Madison Section

Short Resume of Dr. Don Ermer

Continuous Membership in ASQ since 1971 (#00011841)

  • ASQ Fellow (1999) and SME Fellow (1995)
  • The 2000 E.L. Grant Medal from ASQ (the citation reads: “In recognition of his outstanding contributions for developing quality programs both in the US and internationally and his exemplary teaching and mentoring of thousands of university and industrial students in the field of quality.” Joseph M. Juran received the first E.L. Grant Award in 1967.
  • E.J. Oakley Award from the 58th Midwest Conference Board of ASQ-1997
    (It should be noted that Prof. Ermer was the first academic in 27 years to be so honored by this Award which started in 1962.  Other academicians honored by the Oakley Award include giants in the earlier years of ASQ—Hicks, McElroth, Henry, Knowler, and Burr-1970 Purdue University).
  • In November 1997 Prof. Ermer was the recipient of the Ragnar E. Onstad Service to Society Award from the University of Wisconsin College of Engineering (COE) for his leadership, commitment, persistence, and constancy of purpose in developing an integrated education proram in the fundamentals of quality improvement. The COE Dean wrote, “Dr. Ermer’s pursuit of quality excellence in all processes, not just manufacturing, have produced significant, deep-rooted positive changes in society.”
  • ASQ’s National Headquarters in Milwaukee calls on Dr. Ermer to answer questions they get regarding quality improvement and engineering statistics (1997-present)
  • Charter Member of the Madison Section of ASQ (1992) and Chair of Madison Chapter, 1995-1996 (The Chapter was cited for a high retention rate during this time.)
  • Member of Measurement Quality Division, 1993-present, and Councilor for Region 12.
  • One of the first consultants hired by Ford Motor Company for Job One in the early eighties, because of his knowledge of SPC and DOE.  Also taught SPC and DOE methods many times in the eighties for the Milwaukee Section of ASQ, because of his quality improvement knowledge dating back to 1972.
  • UNIDO Industrial Expert on Quality in Singapore for one year in 1972, and taught SPC, DOE, and Reliability Testing and Data Analysis. After that he intermittently served the same Singapore Customer for 27 years.