Joseph (Joe) Koenig (born August 14, 1930) is a Canadian filmmaker and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

who was the founder and president of

Electronics Workbench The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification a ...

Biography

Koenig was born in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

; his family fled

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1937, emigrating to Canada and settling on a farm along the Grand River, outside what is now known as

Cambridge, Ontario Cambridge is a city in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, located at the confluence of the Grand and Speed rivers. The city had a population of 138,479 as of the 2021 census. Along with Kitchener and Waterloo, Cambridg ...

. His older brother

Wolf Koenig Wolf Koenig (October 17, 1927 – June 26, 2014) was a Canadian film director, producer, animator, cinematographer, and a pioneer in Direct Cinema at the National Film Board of Canada. Early life Born in Dresden, Germany, Koenig emigrated to Ca ...

was also a filmmaker.

National Film Board of Canada

Koenig began his career as a

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

in 1956 at the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

(NFB). He directed and/or produced 52 films, including '' Cosmic Zoom'', '' Christopher's Movie Matinée'' and '' The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes''. Among his numerous honours, he won two BAFTA awards, for ''Energy and Matter'' (1966) and '' The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes'' (1968).

International Cinemedia Center Productions

He left the NFB in 1971 and, with colleagues John Kemeny,

George Kaczender George Kaczender (19 April 1933 – 24 August 2016) was a Hungarian-born Canadian film director. He directed 26 films between 1963 and 2001. Biography Kaczender left Hungary in 1956 as a political refugee after studying film and working as ...

and Don Duprey, formed International Cinemedia Center Productions, where he produced educational films and animated content for clients in Canada and the United States, including the celebrated educator

Caleb Gattegno Caleb Gattegno (1911–1988) was an Egyptian educator, psychologist, and mathematician. He is considered one of the most influential and prolific mathematics educators of the twentieth century. He is best known for introducing new approaches to ...

Interactive Image Technologies

In 1978, International Cinemedia became Alliance Communications (which would become

Alliance Atlantis Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis and commonly shortened to simply Alliance or Atlantis and formerly traded as TSX:AAC) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operato ...

). Koenig left the firm, moved from Montreal to Toronto in and founded Interactive Image Technologies. At the NFB, he had become keenly interested in using

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradit ...

as an educational tool, and focused on producing and distributed educational animated and interactive content and videos. In 1992, the

Ontario Government The government of Ontario (french: Gouvernement de l'Ontario) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Ontario. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governor� ...

modified its high school curriculum to require the teaching of electronics. A call for proposals to provide a

simulation software Simulation software is based on the process of modeling a real phenomenon with a set of mathematical formulas. It is, essentially, a program that allows the user to observe an operation through simulation without actually performing that operation ...

package to meet the required learning outcomes was issued, and Koenig’s company was awarded the contract. In 1995, Koenig became embroiled in a copyright lawsuit that gained international attention. He sued the operator of a website that distributed illegal copies of his software through a bulletin-board and was successful in his lawsuit, which was filed in the UK. One of the main challenges faced by early versions of Electronics Workbench, was the reluctance of educators to use simulation software as part of their electronics curriculum. In the early 1990s, there was considerable opposition among the electronics education community regarding the use of simulation software for the delivery of electronics curriculum. Many educators felt that a "hands on" methodology was the only valid method of learning electronics, and that simulation was a less-effective substitute. In 1996, Koenig approached best-selling author Dr. Colin Simpson, with the idea of integrating his simulation software with Simpson’s book Principles of Electronics and to offer an

Electronics technician Electronics technicians help design, develop, test, manufacture, install, and repair electrical and electronic equipment such as communication equipment, medical monitoring devices, navigational equipment, and computers. They may be employed in ...

program where the entire learning outcomes for laboratory projects would be achieved with simulation. Simpson and Koenig embarked on a series of lectures, conference presentations and meetings with accrediting organizations throughout 1996, where they demonstrated that electronics simulation software could achieve identical results to laboratory experiments performed with real equipment. The partnership between Koenig and Simpson led to the creation of the Electronics Technician distance education program, which became the largest electronics program in the world. The program won a National Award in 1998, and established Electronics Workbench as a leading educational resource. In 1999, Koenig oversaw the acquisition of Ultimate Technology Inc. (UTI) located in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The integration of Multisim with UTI’s PCB layout and design, transformed Koenig’s company into a global Electronic Design Automation (EDA) company with an installed base of over 150,000 customers.

Later years

By the year 2000, Koenig’s vision of laboratory simulation software in every school was largely realized and he began to take a more passive role in the strategic planning and day-to-day operation of his company. He announced his retirement as Chief Executive Officer in 2003, and in 2005, Koenig sold his company to

National Instruments National Instruments Corporation, doing business as NI, is an American multinational company with international operation. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it is a producer of automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software. C ...

. An area of the Jalynn Bennett Amphitheatre, which opened in late May 2023 at

Trent University Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Trent is known for its Oxbridge college system and small class sizes.

's Catherine Parr Traill College, in

Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...

, originally to have been called the "President's Booth," was named "Joe's Place," in Koenig's honour, following a donation by his daughter Anne.

Filmography

*''Radiation'' - documentary short,

Hugh O'Connor Hugh Edward Ralph O'Connor (April 7, 1962 – March 28, 1995) was an American actor known for his role as James Flynn in the 1984 film ''Brass'' and his portrayal of Lonnie Jamison on '' In the Heat of the Night'' until his death in 1995. He ...

1959 - writer *''Life and Radiation'' - documentary short,

1960 - writer *''The Tiny Terrors'' - documentary short, 1960 - writer and director *''Interview with Linus Pauling'' - documentary, 1960 - director *''The Real Story of Radar'' - documentary short, 1961 writer and director *''Mathematics at Your Fingertips'' - documentary short, John Howe 1961 - producer *''The Climates of North America'' - documentary short, 1962 - writer and director *''The Origins of Weather'' animated short, 1963 - writer and director *''Jet Pilot'' - documentary short, 1964 director *''Every Second Car'' - documentary short, Rex Tasker & Patricia Burwash 1964 - producer *''The Rideau: Colonel By's Peaceable Waterway'' - documentary short, Marc Champion 1964 - producer *''Animal Altruism'' - documentary short,

Arthur Lipsett Arthur Lipsett (May 13, 1936 – May 1, 1986) was a Canadian avant-garde director of short collage films. Life and career Born in Montreal into a Jewish family, Lipsett saw his mother, an immigrant from Kiev, commit suicide when he was 10 years ...

1965 - producer *''Animals and Psychology'' - documentary short,

1965 - producer *''Fear and Horror'' - documentary short,

1965 - producer *''Perceptual Learning'' - documentary short,

1965 - producer *''The Puzzle of Pain'' - documentary short,

1965 - producer *''You Don't Back Down'' - documentary short, Don Owen 1965 - producer *''The Cruise'' - animated short,

John Hubley John Kirkham Hubley (May 21, 1914 – February 21, 1977) was an American animation director, art director, producer and writer known for his work with the United Productions of America (UPA) and his own independent studio, Storyboard, Inc. (late ...

Faith Hubley Faith Hubley (née Chestman; September 16, 1924 – December 7, 2001) was an American animator, known for her experimental work both in collaboration with her husband John Hubley, and on her own following her husband's death. Biography Bor ...

1966 - producer *''Change in the Maritimes'' - documentary short,

Robin Spry Robin Spry (October 25, 1939 – March 28, 2005) was a Canadian film director and television producer and screenwriter. Spry was perhaps best known for his documentary films '' Action: The October Crisis of 1970'' and '' Reaction: A Portrait of ...

1966 - producer *''Change in the Western Mountains'' - documentary short, 1966 - producer and director *''The Changing Wheat Belt'' - documentary short, 1966 - producer and director *''Bird of Passage'' - documentary short, Martin Defalco 1966 - producer *''Energy and Matter'' - animated short, Robert Verrall 1966 - producer *''The Ever-Changing Lowlands'' - documentary short,

Tony Ianzelo Tony Ianzelo (born June 13, 1935) is a Canadian documentary director and cinematographer. Career Ianzelo was born in Toronto, Ontario, and attended Toronto's Ryerson Institute of Technology. His career at the National Film Board of Canada wa ...

1966 - producer *''Restricted Dogs'' - documentary short, Henry Zemel 1966 - producer *''Imperial Sunset'' - documentary short, Josef Reeve 1967 - producer *''Unstructured for a Summer'' - documentary short, Shelagh Mackenzie 1967 - producer *''A Search for Learning'' - documentary short, Donald Shebib 1967 - producer *''Flowers on a One-Way Street'' - documentary,

1967 - producer *'' The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes'' - documentary short, 1968

Bill Mason Bill Mason was a Canadian naturalist, author, artist, filmmaker, and conservationist, noted primarily for his popular canoeing books, films, and art as well as his documentaries on wolves. Mason was also known for including passages from Christ ...

- producer *''Two Films by Lipsett'' - experimental short, Donald Rennick 1968 - co-producer with Robert Verrall and Mark Slade *'' Christopher's Movie Matinée'' - documentary,

Mort Ransen Mort Ransen (August 16, 1933 – September 4, 2021) was a Canadian film and television director and screenwriter, best known for his Genie Award-winning 1995 film ''Margaret's Museum''. Ransen was born in Montreal, Quebec, and was educated at the ...

1968 - producer *''Continental Drift'' - animated short,

Co Hoedeman Jacobus Willem (Co) Hoedeman (born August 1, 1940 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch-Canadian filmmaker known for his mastery of stop motion animation and technical innovation in films that reveal his close observation of human and social interaction. Bio ...

1968 - producer *'' Cosmic Zoom'' - animated short, Robert Verrall 1968 - co-producer with Robert Verrall *''If At First…'' - documentary short,

Gilles Gascon Gilles Gascon was a Canadian cinematographer and documentary filmmaker. He was most noted for his work on Jacques Giraldeau's 1966 documentary film '' Element 3 (Élément 3)'', for which he won the Canadian Film Award for Best Colour Cinematograph ...

1969 - producer *''Bing Bang Boom'' - documentary short, Joan Henson 1969 - producer *''DNA'' - animated short, Bané Jovanovic 1969 - producer *''Falling from Ladders'' - documentary short,

1969 - producer *''The Half-Masted Schooner'' - documentary short, Bruce Mackay 1969 - producer *''Hymn'' - experimental short 1969 - producer *''The Medium Is the Massage, You Know'' - documentary short, Trevor Greenwood 1969 - producer *''Passing Through Sweden'' - documentary short,

Martin Duckworth Martin Duckworth (born March 8, 1933) is a Canadian documentary director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 20 ...

1969 - producer *''What Is the Big Complaint?'' - short film, Salvatore Greco 1969 - producer *''What is Life?'' - animated short 1970 - co-producer with Robert Verrall *''Matrioska'' - animated short,

1970 - producer *''A Place for Everything'' - documentary short, 1970 Eric M. Nilsson - producer *''Question of Immunity'' - documentary short, Bané Jovanovic 1971 - producer *''Saskatchewan - 45° Below'' - documentary short, Larry Kent 1971 - producer *''What Teacher Expects ... (The Self-fulfilling Prophecy)'' - documentary short, Barrie McLean & Kristin Weingartner 1971 - producer *''The Underground Movie'' - animated short, Les Drew 1972 - producer *''Four Portraits'' - documentary short, Jim McCammon &

Richard Leiterman Richard Leiterman (March 7, 1935 – July 14, 2005) was a Canadian cinematographer, best known for documentary and feature film work in the 1960s and 1970s. His cinéma vérité, or direct camera, style helped define Canadian cinema at the time. ...

1978 - producer *''Immigration Law: A Delicate Balance'' - documentary short, Arnie Gelbart 1978 - producer

Awards

''Mathematics at Your Fingertips'' (1961) * 15th Canadian Film Awards,

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

: Genie Award for Best Film, Training and Instruction, 1963 *

Columbus International Film & Animation Festival The Columbus International Film + Animation Festival is a Columbus, Ohio, United States annual film festival which is designed to encourage and promote the use of film and video in all forms of education and communication. It is the first and o ...

, Columbus, Ohio: Chris Certificate, Information/Education, 1964 ''The Climates of North America'' (1962) *

Yorkton Film Festival Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) is an annual film festival held in late May in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1947, the Yorkton Film Council (YFC) was founded and in 1950 the first international documentary film festival officially opened in we ...

Yorkton Yorkton is a city located in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is about 450 kilometres north-west of Winnipeg and 300 kilometres south-east of Saskatoon and is the sixth largest city in the province. As of 2017 the census population of the ...

: Golden Sheaf Award, First Prize, Science, 1964 * 15th Canadian Film Awards, Montreal: Certificate of Merit, Films for Children, 1963 ''Jet Pilot'' (1964) *

, Columbus, Ohio: Chris Award, First Prize, Information/Education, 1964 ''Energy and Matter'' (1966) * 21st British Academy Film Awards: BAFTA Award for Best Specialised Film, 1968 * International Festival of Didactic Films,

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

: Gold Medal, 1980 *

Roshd International Film Festival Roshd International Film Festival is eldest film festival in Iran. It is centered on the films with educational and pedagogical themes and is staged every year by the Supplying Educational Media Center, a sub-branch of the Ministry of Education ...

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

: Golden Book Trophy - Primary School Film Group, 1993 *

Cork International Film Festival The Cork International Film Festival, also known as the Cork Film Festival (), is a film festival held annually in Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the i ...

, Cork: Certificate of Merit, Scientific and Educational Film, 1966 ''Flowers on a One-way Street'' (1967) * Melbourne Film Festival,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

: Golden Boomerang, Special Prize for Reportage and Style, 1969 * American Film and Video Festival, New York: Blue Ribbon, 1969 *

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

, Chicago: Gold Hugo for Best Television Film, Local Broadcast, 1968 ''Imperial Sunset'' (1967) *

Adelaide Film Festival The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented biennially in March from 2003, since 2013 AFF has been held in October ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

: Certificate of Merit, 1969 '' Christopher's Movie Matinee'' (1968) * International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg,

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

: Recommendation of the Adult Education Centres Jury, 1969 *

: Certificate of Merit, 1970 '' Cosmic Zoom'' (1968) * Ibero-American Documentary Film. Festival,

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

: Gold Medal, 1969 * Trieste Science+Fiction Festival,

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

: Golden Seal of the City of Trieste, 1969 * International Educational Film Festival,

: Certificate of Merit, Scientific Films, 1969 * International Exhibition of Scientific Film,

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

: Diploma of Honor, 1970 * International Festival of Short Films,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

: Award for Exceptional Merit, 1970 * UNIATEC International Technical Film Competition,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

: Award of Excellence 1972 '' The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes'' (1968) *

: Golden Sheaf Award, First Prize, Educational, 1969 * International Educational Film Festival,

: Golden Delfan, First Prize, Scientific Films, 1969 * 24th British Academy Film Awards, London: Best Specialized Film, 1971 *SODRE International Festival of Documentary and Experimental Films, Montevideo: First Place, Documentary 1971 *Canadian Amateur Film Association,

: Special Award, Best Film of the Year, 1971 *Israeli Film Festival,

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

: Certificate of Merit, 1969 *Canadian Amateur Film Association,

: Certificate of Merit, 1971 *International Film Festival on the Human Environment,

: Diploma of Merit, 1973 *2nd International Environmental Pollution Exhibition,

Winsted, Connecticut Winsted is a census-designated place and an incorporated city in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is part of the town of Winchester. The population of Winsted was 7,712 at the 2010 census, out of 11,242 in the entire town of Win ...

: Best Movie, 1975 *International Educational Film Festival,

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

: Electra Award, Business and Industry, 1989 ''Bing Bang Boom'' (1969) * American Film and Video Festival, New York: Blue Ribbon, 1970 *

Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science The Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) is an organisation that was founded in 1888 as the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science to promote science. It was modelled on the British As ...

(ANZAAS), Sydney: selection for University Exhibition, 1971 ''Falling from Ladders'' (1969) * International Festival of Short Films,

: Award for Exceptional Merit, 1971 ''What is Life?'' (1970) *

, Columbus, Ohio: Chris Award, 1972 ''Matrioska'' (1970) * American Film and Video Festival, New York: Blue Ribbon, 1971 ''Question of Immunity'' (1971) * Golden Gate International Film Festival, San Francisco: Best Film. Medical and Health, 1972 ''The Underground Movie'' (1972) *

: Certificate of Merit, 1974

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koenig, Joe National Film Board of Canada people Canadian documentary film directors Film directors from Ontario Canadian cinematographers Canadian documentary film producers Living people 1930 births People from Dresden German emigrants to Canada People from the Regional Municipality of Waterloo