George Wiley Burch

George Wiley Burch is a polymath whose career spans military service, advanced mathematics, pioneering software development, and spiritual leadership. A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy’s inaugural class in 1959, Burch served as a navigator in the U.S. Air Force until 1963, flying B-52 aircraft and contributing to strategic operations from Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan.

Following his military service, Burch pursued graduate studies in statistics and operations research at Johns Hopkins University. His early work included contributions to projects where he designed queuing processes for time-sharing computers, collaborating with computing luminaries such as John McCarthy and Joseph Weizenbaum.

During the Vietnam War, Burch served as a mathematician for Commander in Chief Pacific Admiral McCain, developing a model of the North Vietnamese transportation system. His work was credited with disrupting supply lines prior to the Tet Offensive, earning him a Presidential citation.

From 1969 onward, Burch transitioned into entrepreneurship, founding companies that shaped the data quality and semantic AI industries.

He is widely recognized as a founding figure in semantic AI, having led projects that supported U.S. counterintelligence efforts post-9/11 and developed ontology-based software stacks.

In parallel with his technical career, Burch embraced spiritual leadership. He was ordained in the Japanese Rinzai Zen tradition and received Inka (lineage transmission or seal of spiritual enlightenment), becoming an 84th-generation master in the Hakuin line. He co-founded Friends of Zen, Inc., and helped establish the Zen Temple in the U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel.