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May 2007 The William Kruskal Legacy: 1919–2005
Stephen E. Fienberg, Stephen M. Stigler, Judith M. Tanur
Statist. Sci. 22(2): 255-261 (May 2007). DOI: 10.1214/088342306000000420

Abstract

William Kruskal (Bill) was a distinguished statistician who spent virtually his entire professional career at the University of Chicago, and who had a lasting impact on the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and on the field of statistics more broadly, as well as on many who came in contact with him. Bill passed away last April following an extended illness, and on May 19, 2005, the University of Chicago held a memorial service at which several of Bill’s colleagues and collaborators spoke along with members of his family and other friends. This biography and the accompanying commentaries derive in part from brief presentations on that occasion, along with recollections and input from several others.

Bill was known personally to most of an older generation of statisticians as an editor and as an intellectual and professional leader. In 1994, Statistical Science published an interview by Sandy Zabell (Vol. 9, 285–303) in which Bill looked back on selected events in his professional life. One of the purposes of the present biography and accompanying commentaries is to reintroduce him to old friends and to introduce him for the first time to new generations of statisticians who never had an opportunity to interact with him and to fall under his influence.

Citation

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Stephen E. Fienberg. Stephen M. Stigler. Judith M. Tanur. "The William Kruskal Legacy: 1919–2005." Statist. Sci. 22 (2) 255 - 261, May 2007. https://doi.org/10.1214/088342306000000420

Information

Published: May 2007
First available in Project Euclid: 27 September 2007

zbMATH: 1246.01013
MathSciNet: MR2397157
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1214/088342306000000420

Keywords: Encyclopedias , Kruskal–Wallis test , measures of association , representative sampling

Rights: Copyright © 2007 Institute of Mathematical Statistics

Vol.22 • No. 2 • May 2007
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