(Quality Digest: Chico, CA) -- Mikel Harry, one of the early developers of Six Sigma, died yesterday, April 25, 2017, in Chandler, Arizona. He was 65. Harry, along with Bill Smith, was one of the architects of Six Sigma within Motorola. He was sometimes referred to as the “father of Six Sigma” although Harry referred to himself as the “godfather” of Six Sigma, and pointed to Motorola engineer Bill Smith as the true father of the methodology.

Harry has been widely recognized and cited in many publications as the principal architect of Six Sigma and the world’s leading authority within this field. His book, Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World’s Top Corporations (Crown Business, 2000) has been on the bestseller list of The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Amazon.com.

He began his Arizona State University doctoral internship at Motorola GEG Radar Operations in 1983, and in that same year began working with Dorian Shainin at Motorola GEG on several engineering problems. He later taught the Shainin Methods for the GEG training department (Advanced Diagnostic Tools).

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