 During his long and
distinguished career Harry had a significant impact on the
practice and teaching of statistics and in areas such as
finance, marketing, statistical software, quality management,
affirmative action, government and public policy, and
healthcare. Through his teaching, writing, speaking, and
consulting, he was a tireless and consummate
advocate for the effective use of data and statistical analysis
in all areas.
Examples of his written advocacy range from “Statistics as a
Career” with Howard Jones in 1953 and “Statistics in Middle
Management” in 1955 to Quality is Personal with Bernie
Sergesketter in 1993. Each of Harry’s dozen or so books are
distinguished by their respect for the value of data and the
clear exposition of how to solve real problems through sound
analysis.
Thirty years after
writing the path breaking text, Statistics: A New Approach
with W. Allen Wallis (1956), Harry and George Tiao with the
support of George Easton created the organization
Making
Statistics More Effective in Schools and Business.
Since it’s creation, much of what MSMESB has done to
improve the teaching and practice of statistics is due to
Harry’s contributions and inspiration.
Harry demonstrated over and over again that data and statistical
analysis could be applied to good purpose in many areas (see,
for example, “Statistics for Administration” with Wallis (1958),
“Stock Market ‘Patterns’ and Financial Analysis: Methodological
Suggestions” (1959), “Bayesian Synthesis of Clinical and
Statistical Prediction” with Pankoff (1968), “Regression
Analyses in Employment Discrimination Cases” with Conway (1986),
“Real World Total Quality Projects for Statistics” with Bateman
(1995), and “Total Quality for Professors and Students” with
Bateman (1995)). The pioneering statistical package IDA
(Interactive Data Analysis) which Bob Ling and Harry developed
in the early-seventies enabled rich data analysis in a way that
the batch packages of the time could not. It quickly became the
dominant package in schools of management and led to several
manuscripts and books by Harry (some with Ling or Bateman) which
demonstrated how one could do real data
analysis on real data sets to solve real problems. His clear
exposition of
applied data analysis and the associated datasets in his Data
Analysis for
Managers (1988 and 1991) are still treasured by teachers and
practitioners of statistics and valued by students.
Not content to be a tireless teacher, writer, researcher, and
consultant, Harry carried the message of the value of data and
sound data analysis to a wide variety of audiences
(professional, medical, government, education, …) from Chicago
to Beijing. The ASA Chicago Chapter archivist should try to
retrieve a copy of his presentation at the
4th Annual Mid-West Conference of the CCASA entitled
“Piercing the
Communication Barrier with Statistics” (16 March 1957).
Harry’s vita is replete with many more examples of his advocacy
as well as his other professional contributions. Beyond these
accomplishments, though, he was generous to all and touched many
lives in his various roles of teacher, mentor, colleague,
advisor, and consultant. |
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