TAPS: Mr. Richards "Dick" J. Heuer, Jr

21 August 2018. Mr. Richards "Dick" J. Heuer, Jr., at his home near Pacific Grove in California.

Born 15 July, 1927, he was a former CIA veteran of 45 years in DO, DI and as a contractor. He was most known for his work on analysis of competing hypotheses; and his book, Psychology of Intelligence Analysis.

The former treatise provides a methodology for overcoming intelligence biases while the latter outlines how mental models and natural biases impede clear thinking and analysis. In the age of artificial Intelligence, he pioneered analytic methodology and the foundation of machine-analyst interaction.


In 2010, he co-authored a book with Randolph (Randy) H. Pherson titled Structured Analytic Techniques for Intelligence Analysis.

A Philosophy major at Williams College, he was personally recruited to the Agency by the Director of CIA and cut his analytic teeth in the Directorate for Operations (DO) before moving to DI. He retired after 28 years of government service, but continued work as a contractor at Langley until the mid-1990s. His work was pivotal as a basis for setting analytic standards after 9/11.

NIP member and cyber expert Bob Gourely cites him as "a primary seminal influence for many of us." His clear articulation academic research and psychological factors outlined the many factors that contribute to accurate assessment.

Heuer's book Structured Analytic Techniques (SATs) for Intelligence Analysis, published in 2010 (second edition 2015) and co-authored with Randy H. Pherson, provides a comprehensive taxonomy of SATs pertaining to eight categories: decomposition and visualization, idea generation, scenarios and indicators, hypothesis generation and testing, cause and effect, challenge analysis, conflict management and decision support.

Heuer felt strongly that the National Security Council (NIC) should serve as the entity that sets the standards for the use of structured analytic techniques within the intelligence community and that the DNI should create a "center for analytic tradecraft" responsible for testing all structured analytic techniques, developing new ones and collecting lessons-learned regarding all structured analytic techniques throughout the IC.

He leaves a large legacy for the future.

No services have been scheduled as of information cut-off.