Jerry Pournelle

Jerry Pournelle married Roberta Jane Isdell in 1959 and they have five children together.

In 2008, Pournelle was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He successfully battled it by undergoing radiation treatment.

Jerry Pournelle was born on August 7, 1933 in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. He received his schooling from Capleville, Tennessee and served in the Korean War for the US Army.

After his return from the Korean War, he went to the University of Washington and received his BS in psychology and mathematics in 1955. Thereafter, he went on to obtain an MS in psychology, experimental statistics and systems engineering.

He completed his PhD in political science from the University of Washington, in 1964. For his political science dissertation, he created a 2-D coordinate system which could be used to distinguish political ideologies and called it the 'Pournelle chart'.

Jerry Pournelle worked as campaign director for the mayoral campaign of 1969 for Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, who was a Demaocrat party candidate. Jerry was later on appointed as Executive Assistant to the Mayor in charge of research, but he quit from the position after two weeks.

After resigning from the position at Mayor’s office, he became a consultant to the Professional Educators of Los Angeles (PELA) in 1970. This group was known for its opposition to the unionization of school teachers in LA.

He worked in the operations research department at The Aerospace Corporation and the North America Rockwell Space Division, and later on became the founding president of the Pepperdine Research Institute.

A government budget cut reduced the demand for space research and he chose to become a science-fiction writer.

Russell Kirk and Stefan T Possony took Pournelle as their protégé. Possony and Pournelle penned several publications, including 'The Strategy of Technology' which later became a textbook for the US Military Academy, US Air Force Academy, the Air War College and the National War College.

He attained great fame and recognition for the books he co-wrote with Larry Niven. Their 1985 novel 'Footfall' reached the No. 1 spot on the New York Times Best Seller List and 'Lucifer's Hammer' (1977) reached No. 2 on the same list. Another of their novels, ‘The Mote in God's Eye' was a huge success and so was the sequel 'The Gripping Hand'.