Watts S. Humphrey is a real American hero, and not just because he was born on the Fourth of July. He'll even receive confirmation of this on March 14, when President Bush drapes a medal around his neck.

Watts S. Humphrey Age: 77 Residence: Sarasota, Fla. Occupation: Fellow at Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute In the news: Recipient of the National Medal of Technology Education: Bachelor's degree from University of Chicago, master's degree from Illinois Institute of Technology, master's in business from University of Chicago, honorary doctorate from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. Quote: "If we can efficiently do the kind of work we need to do to address [humankind's] problems, it will be a marvelous and satisfying achievement. And that's where we're going."

A fellow at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, Humphrey will receive the National Medal of Technology for his work designing a model for developing software more efficiently.

Although this accomplishment at first glance seems impressive but not heroic, friends and colleagues say that Humphrey's work truly does categorize him as a hero ---- it will keep planes from falling out of the sky, help workers get their paychecks on time and has even won Humphrey the Mother Teresa-like distinction of having his name on a software institute in India.

Humphrey devised the model during his time at the Software Engineering Institute, or SEI, where he has worked since 1987. The Capability Maturity Model, or CMM, created a structured way for people who design software to do so on a time line. It has helped software developers complete projects efficiently and on time.

Before Humphrey's innovation, software production was often completed past the project deadline and over budget.

"The man has revolutionized the quality movement in software production," said Angel Jordan, one of the founders of the institute and a professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon. "He has made the greatest accomplishments of the SEI ---- he's everybody's hero."

Jordan says that Humphrey's model is now the de facto standard in the software industry.

For anyone whose head is now swimming with thoughts of software revolutions and computers, the impact of Humphrey's work reaches even the computer illiterate. Software keeps an increasingly computerized world running, said Clyde Chittister, SEI's chief operating officer, who has worked with Humphrey for 20 years.

"In your daily life, you can't go more than an hour without being touched by a computer in some way," he said. "There are a lot of things that would not work without software ---- the brakes in your car, the telephone system. Airplanes don't fly without software."

Humphrey's model can also be applied to the world outside of the software industry, to map out the progress of a large team of people working on an intellectual project. It's a process comparable to industrialization, which in the 19th and 20th centuries allowed large groups of people to produce things from manual labor in a factory system.

Humphrey hopes that this aspect of his model will have far-reaching implications. He would like to see his work applied to today's international challenges, such as fixing the intelligence system, eradicating hunger and getting people to Mars and the moon.

"I'm convinced that as we apply these principles, we can show people how to much more efficiently solve humankind's problems," said Humphrey in an interview last week.

"We're trying to show people how to work together cooperatively on intellectual work."

Humphrey's background in physics and engineering made him uniquely qualified to design this new approach to intellectual work and software. He's an engineer by trade and did not get into the software industry until the early 1960s, more than a decade after graduating from college.

"I had some early thoughts that computers could be pretty darn important," he said. "No one could conceivably imagine what would happen to the computer industry, but I had some ideas as to what kinds of amazing things you could do with it."

Humphrey is modest and quick to point out that he wants to share the credit for his work with thousands of people around the world. But his own accomplishments alone are impressive.

He designed software for IBM from 1959 to 1986 and left to explore more ideas about software at SEI. He's published seven books since arriving there.

Colleagues say that part of Humphrey's success stems from his focused attitude. He sets aside a few hours a day to write, and not even his wife is allowed to interrupt him during that time.

Humphrey maintains a jam-packed schedule, even at age 77. Although he and his wife live in Sarasota, Fla., he travels to Pittsburgh frequently, as well as around the world, to speak about innovations in software.

But he's a family man at heart and once told a colleague that he never missed dinner with his family when his children were younger. Humphrey's first thought after learning he was a medal of technology winner was concern about whether his seven children would all be able to attend the ceremony.

It might seem astonishing that Humphrey had time to raise a family with his wife, Barbara, while authoring nine books and revolutionizing the software industry. But colleague Bill Peterson, director of the software engineering process management program at Carnegie Mellon, says Humphrey's attitude is that he can do anything he puts his mind to.

"We say that sometimes Watts works a half day, " he said, "That means 12 hours to Watts."