On Tuesday 28 May 2024, the Brussels Area Node of the Millennium Project paid tribute to Theodore J. Gordon (1930-2024), futures pioneer and co-founder of the The Millennium Project.

Each room at The Destree Institute in Namur, Wallonia, hosting the Brussels Area Node, is named after a role model whose legacy the Node wants to pass on. Alongside offices named after Donella Meadows, Lise Thiry, Gaston Berger, Aurelio Peccei, Robert Jungk, Eleonora Barbieri Masini among others, a large meeting room on the first floor of the building is now named after Ted Gordon.

The will was to honor Ted, an aeronautical engineer, already famous for his contribution to the Apollo programme, who has served the foresight community so well. He is both as a pioneer in the methods he developed or improved (Trend Impact Analysis, Technology Sequence Analysis, Cross-Impact Analysis, Realtime Delphi, etc.) within the Rand Corporation, the Futures Group and, above all, The Millennium Project which he co-founded in 1996.

Marie-Anne Delahaut, President of the Millennia2025 Women and Innovation Foundation and Co-Chair of The Millennium Project Brussels Area Node, recalled Ted’s active presence in some initiatives of the Node and its European partners.

• at the international conference organised by the European Millennium Project Nodes Initiative (EUMPI) at the Aula Magna in Louvain-la-Neuve (Wallonia, BE) in 2005, The futures of European in the Global Knowledge Society, and the subsequent Planning Committee;
• at the 2008 Conference at the Palais des Congrès in Liège : Millennia2015, Women actors of development for the global challenges;
• at the 2012 international conference Millennia2015, An action plan for women’s empowerment  at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and the foresight training courses that followed this event and enabled dozens of participants from several continents to learn from this great futurist.

Since that time, the Node has continued to learn from Ted Gordon, still participating with him in various projects, in particular those in which the Millennium Project and The Destree Institute were involved with NATO and various services in the anticipation of terrorism.

The thoughts and gratitude of the Brussels-Node Area team, The Destree Institute, and the Millennia2025 Women and Innovation Foundation go out to Ted and Ann’s family, as well as to his lifelong companions, foremost among them Jerry Glenn and Elizabeth Florescu.

Find a picture of this celebration following, with, from left to right, Marie-Anne Delahaut, Nikos Kastrinos, Thomas Deridder, Philippe Destatte, Giovanna Sacco and Frédéric Moray (Open Changin’ School Project).

Read more on this tribute at https://phd2050.org/2024/05/29/ted/