Dr. David Ira Cleland
Dr. David Ira Cleland, 92, of Harmony passed away peacefully Wednesday while under the care of Passavant Retirement Community in Zelienople.
David was born on March 21, 1926, in Harmony, and was the son of the late Ira Lamont Cleland and Florence Martha Stickel Cleland. He was the youngest of nine children.
David spent his early years living on modest means on a farm in Harmony during the Great Depression with his eight siblings. His parents were both teachers, which instilled in David the importance of education and reading from an early age. Growing up on the farm taught him many life lessons, which shaped him into the man he became, including a deep love of the land and nature, compassion for animals, a strong work ethic, independence, responsibility and the importance of family. He had the amazing ability to be able to identify every tree and bird he saw.
He attended grade school at Red Brush School in Lancaster Township, a one-room schoolhouse, which he amazingly walked three and a half miles to and from school each day in his hand-me-down shoes.
The day after his 17th birthday, David lied about his age to enter service into the U.S. Navy during World War II, and proudly served for two years. He received his radio operator's license and was stationed on a troop ship in the Aleutian Islands in the South Pacific. He was assigned to a 22 mm canon when on alert. Later, he was stationed at Landsberg Air Force Base in West Germany. After the war, he received his high school diploma on the GI Bill from Kiski Prep School.
David married the love of his life, Velma Jane “Janie” Bintrim Cleland, on May 27, 1950, whom he would be devoted to for 65 years of marriage until her passing on Feb. 21, 2016.
He was stationed for many years at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, alongside his wife, where they hosted many dinner parties and attended many balls together. There, he was a project manager in the development of ballistic weapon systems. He was also very active in project management at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). He retired as lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Air Force.
David was a very patriotic man who loved his country and was extremely proud to serve in the military.
David received his bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1954, his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh School of Business in 1958, and his Ph.D. from Ohio State University.
He was an engineer, educator and professor emeritus in the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, of which he dedicated 32 years teaching project management. He was appointed to the Ernest E. Roth Professorship in the School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh in September 1990, in recognition of his outstanding productivity as a senior member of the faculty. He retired in 1999, but remained professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh, while authoring and editing a total of 41 books on project management, engineering management and manufacturing management.
He received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Project Management in 2010 from the Project Management Institute (PMI), where he was a founding member. He was named a Fellow of PMI in 1987, and he received PMI's Distinguished Contribution to Project Management Award, an unprecedented three times; in 1983, 1993 and 2001. In 1990, PMI recognized him with a Special Contribution Award, and in 1991, he received a Presidential Citation. PMI has also named an award in his honor, the PMI David I. Cleland Excellence in Project Management Literature Award. Gregory Balestrero, CEO Emeritus of PMI stated, “Dr. Cleland has dedicated his professional life to advancing the art and science of project management through research, formal education, certification and standards … No one has arguably done more to support the profession or those who operate within it.” He is recognized as the “Father of Project Management.”
David has had extensive experience as a lecturer on project management and team management throughout the United States and in foreign countries. He has served as a management consultant and as an expert witness on several major court cases. David was also the co-founder of the University of Pittsburgh's Manufacturing Assistance Centre (MAC).
Being a farm boy at heart led David to return to his roots when he moved to Scott Ridge Road in Harmony, Lancaster Township, after his retirement from the U.S. Air Force in 1968. There, he and his wife, Velma, built their home on 61 acres that housed the one-room schoolhouse he once attended, his gentleman's farm. He raised Hereford cows and horses, farmed grain and tended three gardens.
He was proud of his English and Scottish roots, of which genealogy revealed could be traced back to William Wallace. An avid outdoorsman, David enjoyed hunting, fishing and gardening.
He was the devoted husband of the late Velma Jane Bintrim Cleland; the father of the late David Ira Cleland Jr., who was an Air Force lieutenant during Vietnam, graduate of the Air Force Academy and a C130 Cargo Aircraft Pilot, the father of Jennifer Leigh Cleland of Harmony, the father of Matthew Brent Cleland of Tucson, Ariz.; and brother to the late Donald, Dale, Marion Weller, Paul, William and Dorothy Cleland, Phyllis Pflug, and James Cleland.
David also is survived by a daughter-in-law, Susan Margaret Maczon Cleland Suarez, and her husband, Sergio, of the Villages, Fla., and their children, Alexandra Suarez of Portland, Ore., and Zachary Suarez of the Villages, Fla.; his special caregiver, Sonia Green of Portersville; and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, extended family and relatives.
CLELAND — The family of Dr. David Ira Cleland, who died Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018, will welcome friends from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at Boylan Funeral Home, 324 E. Grandview Ave., Zelienople.A service in celebration of David's life will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Peter's Reformed Church, 320 E. Grandview Ave., Zelienople, with the Rev. Peggy Suhr-Barkley and the Rev. James R. Bertoti co-officiating.David will be laid to rest with full military honors at Portersville Bible Church Cemetery in Portersville.Online condolences and directions are at www.boylanfuneralhome.com.
