He passed away two years ago, but used this word along with others I’d never heard anyone else use as far back as I can remember (the early sixties).

In his article on “How to Design a Kludge”, my father jokingly credited origin of the word to some ancient German word of similar spelling. In actuality, he coined the word during his stint as a bomber navigator during WWII. Many parts of the whole process of dropping bombs on Europe were the result of systems “kludged” together.

After the war, my dad went to work for Boeing and was involved in the production of some early age computer technology development, were “kludging” happened to a large degree.

My father, Jackson W. Granholm, had a degree in Physics from the University of Washington, held multiple contracting licenses, was involved in alcohol biofuels in the early 70′s, and wrote thousands of articles during his lifetime.

Other words he coined included

“Slowe” (Pronounce sl–ou as in “ouch” meaning to beat severely. As in “If you don’t quiet down you’re going to get slowed!”

and

“flubdubbity” meaning sense in immense confusion

Glen Granholm