William Fetter

William Fetter
William Fetter when he worked for Boeing Aircraft
Born	William Alan Fetter (1928-03-14)March 14, 1928 Independence, Missouri, U.S.
Died	June 23, 2002(2002-06-23) (aged 74) Bellevue, Washington, U.S.
Cause of death	Type I Aortic Dissection
Nationality	American
Occupation	Director and CEO of Siroco, a research corporation, Chair of Design Department for SIU Communications Design Director, Boeing, Seattle
Spouse(s)	Barbara Shaffer Fetter (born Shaffer) (1965-2002, his death)
Children	2

William Fetter, also known as William Alan Fetter or Bill Fetter (March 14, 1928 – June 23, 2002), was an American graphic designer and pioneer in the field of computer graphics. He explored the perspective fundamentals of computer animation of a human figure from 1960 on and was the first to create a human figure as a 3D model. The First Man was a pilot in a short 1964 computer animation, also known as Boeing Man and now as Boeman by the Boeing company. Fetter preferred the term "Human Figure" for the pilot. In 1960, working in a team supervised by Verne Hudson, he helped coin the term Computer graphics. He was art director at the Boeing Company in Wichita.

Born in Independence, Missouri, Fetter attended school in Englewood and graduated in 1945 from Northeast High School in Kansas City. He studied at the University of Illinois where he was awarded a BA in graphic design in 1952. His professional career started while studying at the University of Illinois Press (UIP), an American university press. Employed there from 1952-1954, even at this early date he thought of using computers as a tool for his work as a graphic designer. He wrote in 1966:

The need for a computer to simplify certain graphic procedures first became evident to me at the University of Illinois Press Art Division, when I had to design and render an illustrated title page for "Space Medicine“.

In 1954, he became art director for Family Weekly magazine in Chicago. In his article "Computer Graphics at Boeing" for Print magazine he wrote that he was interested in developing a computer program that could simplify the designing of the magazine in the closing stages. Together with a computer manager, he worked on the development of a program but before the project was completed, Fetter accepted employment as art director of Boeing in Wichita in 1959.

"In 1960, 'we' at Boeing coined the term computer graphics", wrote Fetter in a 1966 issue of Print magazine. In the article he wrote about the team involved. Over time, Fetter received universal credit as the first person to use the term "computer graphics". He later recognized the need to unequivocally make clear that Verne L. Hudson, his superior in the development team, used the words first. Boeing also notes that Verne L. Hudson was the first to coin the term.