Frederick S. Hillier, operations research pioneer and influential textbook author, dies at 89

Frederick S. Hillier, professor emeritus of operations research in Stanford Engineering’s Department of Management Science and Engineering, passed away on January 9, 2026. He was 89.

A pioneering scholar, longtime Stanford faculty member, and widely influential textbook author, Hillier helped define the field of operations research – and Stanford’s place within it.

Hillier was best known for co-authoring Introduction to Operations Research, first published in 1967. “His textbook played a major role in defining what operations research is,” said Peter W. Glynn, professor of management science and engineering at Stanford. “It helped people in adjacent fields understand what the field is and how it works.”

Hillier was known for his discipline, focus, and attention to detail. He was also conscientious, caring, and thoughtful rather than flashy, with a reserved style and a dry sense of humor, Glynn said.

Early Life and Education

Hillier was born on March 4, 1936, in Aberdeen, Washington. He attended public schools in Aberdeen before enrolling at Stanford University in 1954.

When he arrived at Stanford, Hillier was assigned Gerald J. Lieberman as his freshman adviser. Lieberman introduced Hillier to the emerging field of operations research and became Hillier’s undergraduate mentor, doctoral advisor, department chair, and eventually his co-author.

As an undergraduate, Hillier showed an unusual range of interests and talents. He was a member of the Stanford Woodwind Quintet, was named Outstanding Sophomore Debater, won the McKinsey Prize for technical writing, and received the Hamilton Award for combining excellence in engineering with achievement in the humanities and social sciences. He earned a BS in industrial engineering in 1958, graduating first in his class.

Following Lieberman’s encouragement, Hillier stayed at Stanford for graduate school. He earned an MS in statistics in 1959 and a PhD in operations research in 1961. He joined the Stanford faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering that same year.

He was promoted to associate professor in 1964 and full professor in 1968, and later served multiple terms as associate chair. Over the years, Hillier played an active role in graduate admissions and departmental governance. “He was a thoughtful contributor in faculty discussions,” Glynn said.

In 1967, Stanford established a Department of Operations Research, and Hillier helped build it into a leading program. Hillier’s research focused on making mathematical tools useful in real-world settings to solve practical problems. He used mathematics to understand systems where delays occur – such as customers waiting in line, traffic moving through bottlenecks, or jobs moving through a factory – including how delays form and how they can be reduced.

He also found that making every step in an assembly-line industrial process take exactly the same amount of time is not always the most efficient approach. When there is variability, putting the slow processing steps at either the beginning or end of the line can improve overall performance. This idea became known as the “bowl phenomenon.”

Over the decades, Hillier advised around 40 graduate students, many of whom went on to influential careers in academia, industry, and government. “He gave his students strong research problems and helped them learn how to think through them,” Glynn said.

Impact on Operations Research Beyond Stanford

Beyond Stanford, Hillier helped shape the field of operations research nationally through roles at the Operations Research Society of America and the Institute of Management Sciences. His work helped lay the groundwork for the merger that formed the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) in 1995.

Hillier’s Introduction to Operations Research, written with Lieberman and first published in 1967, was one of the first comprehensive textbooks in the field and became its standard introduction. It was translated into more than 15 languages and used by more than a million students worldwide.

“What made the book distinctive was that it framed problems in real-world terms,” Glynn said. “Students had to translate practical situations into mathematical models.”

Hillier wrote Introduction to Mathematical Programming and Introduction to Stochastic Models in Operations Research, both published in 1990. From 1993 to 2013, he was editor of Springer’s International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, helping bring roughly 200 books into the field.

Hillier retired in 1996 and continued revising his textbooks into his late 80s. The 11th edition of Introduction to Operations Research was published in 2020, and he completed the manuscript for the 12th edition in 2023.

“He never really stepped away from the field,” Glynn said. “He remained deeply engaged and kept his work current.”

In 1999, Hillier made textbook writing a family affair, co-authoring the book that eventually became Introduction to Management Science and Business Analytics with his son Mark Hillier, a faculty member at the University of Washington Foster School of Business.

The book adapted operations research concepts for business school students and eventually reached more than a quarter of a million students. At the time of his death, he was working with Mark on the eighth edition of the management science textbook.

“He cared deeply about getting it right,” Mark Hillier said. “He would go through every word, every example, making sure it was clear and correct.”

In 2004, Hillier was named an INFORMS Fellow and received the Saul Gass Expository Writing Award. In 2018, he received the INFORMS Kimball Medal. In 2023, he was inducted into the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS) International Hall of Fame.

Hillier generously supported scholarships and educational programs. He led fundraising efforts to establish the Dantzig-Lieberman Operations Research Fellowships at Stanford, creating long-term support for doctoral students.

Passionate about Stanford Swimming

Hillier was deeply committed to both his work and his family. He was always working – often sitting with a yellow pad in the family room with sports on the television. But he also always made time to support his sons at their swim meets, concerts, and family events.

He even used his operations research skills to help the swim coaches design lineups. In meets, swimmers can only compete in a limited number of events, so Hillier would compare the swimmer’s best times, expected matchups, relay options, and the strengths of opposing teams to maximize points.

“Dad was always big into numbers,” his son David Hillier said. “He loved the puzzle of figuring out the best lineup.” 

Through his love for competitive swimming, Hillier also connected with Stanford’s swim team. Stanford swimmer and Hillier’s student Sean Murphy, who eventually swam for Canada in the Olympics, approached him after he shared an example about mathematically optimizing a swimming medley relay in class. Hillier remained a fixture around Stanford swimming for decades.

Hillier also had a longstanding connection to the Baptist community. With his wife, he created the Frederick S. and Ann L. Hillier Family Legacy Endowment to support American Baptist ministries.

Hillier is survived by his sons, David, Mark, and John, and six granddaughters. He was preceded in death by his wife, Ann Hillier.

A memorial service will be held on June 20 in Redmond, Washington.