This year marks about half a century since the birth of the technique known as the partial element equivalent circuit modeling approach. This method was initially conceived to model the behavior of interconnect-type problems for computer-integrated circuits. An important industrial requirement was the computation of general inductances in integrated circuits and packages. Since then, the advances in methods and applications made it suitable for modeling a large class of electromagnetic problems, especially in the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)/signal and power integrity (SI/PI) areas. The purpose of this article is to present an overview of all aspects of the method, from its beginning to the present day, with special attention to the developments that have made it suitable for EMC/SI/PI problems.