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Edward E. David Jr.

American engineer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ5342689 ↗
Source-derived summary

Edward Emil David Jr. (January 25, 1925 – February 13, 2017) was an American electrical engineer who served as science advisor to President Richard Nixon and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology from 1970 to 1973.

Early life and education

David was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, on January 25, 1925. He earned a Bachelor of Science from the Georgia Tech, followed by a Master of Science and Doctor of Science in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1947.

Career

He took a job with Bell Telephone Laboratories and worked there from 1950 to 1970, eventually becoming executive director for communications research. Following the resignation of Lee A. DuBridge, David was appointed as Richard Nixon's science advisor. David resigned in 1973, citing "disappointment that his advice had not been heeded." He then took a position as executive vice president of R&D and planning at Gould Electronics from 1973 to 1977.

He founded consulting group EED, Inc. in 1977, advising industry, government, and universities on technology, research, and innovation management. He was the president of research and engineering at Exxon from 1977 to 1986.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Edward E. David Jr.” is american engineer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Edward, David and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1925, 2017, 1970, 1973—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1925-01-25, 1925—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Edward, David and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american engineer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5342689. VIAF identifies the subject as 62396595. The Library of Congress control number is n83063449. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 2017, 1970 and 1973.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Edward E. David Jr.”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Edward E. David Jr. primary sources, Edward E. David Jr. archive and Edward research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Edward E. David Jr.”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Edward E. David Jr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.