Rand’s Logistics Research Head, Murray Geisler, Dies

Murray A. Geisler, director of logistics research for Rand Corp. for 20 years and a nationally recognized authority in military logistics and operations research, died Tuesday at his Los Angeles home.

He was 68 and had been battling leukemia.

Geisler, who helped develop the large-scale computers used by the military for planning as early as 1948, saw his logistical techniques later adapted by other governmental agencies and in industry.

Many of the team on Project SCOOP (Scientific Computation of Optimal Programs), financed originally by the Air Force, moved with him in 1954 or had already moved to Rand Corp. in Santa Monica.

Geisler, who earned his doctoral degree at Stanford University, later taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was senior logistician at the Logistics Management Institute in Washington until 1983.

A colonel in the Air Force Reserve, he had served on the editorial board of the Naval Research Logistics Quarterly and also was a member of the Air Force’s Scientific Advisory Board.

His survivors include his wife, Margaret, and a son and daughter.

Contributions are being asked to the Murray Geisler Memorial Leukemia Fund at UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, 90024.