Peter W. M. John

By Veronica Czitrom

Peter William Meredith John, professor emeritus of mathematics at The University of Texas at Austin, passed away on January 22, 2015, at the age of 91. He will be remembered for his many contributions to design of experiments, with applications in a variety of fields.

Peter W. M. John

A Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Royal Statistical Society, and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, John was recognized for his statistical contributions. He was the keynote speaker twice for the Quality and Productivity Research Conference, one sponsored by Bell Laboratories in 1997 and the other by the IBM Watson Research Center in 2003. John was honored with the Don Owen Award in 1995 and received honorable mention for the Shewell Award at the 1977 Fall Technical Conference and the Shewell Award (jointly) at the 1991 conference.

On a personal level, John was delightful, always with a ready smile and a wonderful sense of humor. At statistical meetings, he enjoyed a good beer and conviviality with colleagues; even people who hadn’t seen him in years remembered him fondly. John had a strong impact on both the personal and professional lives of many of his students. He delivered classroom lectures with enthusiasm and fascinating anecdotes, as well as interesting examples. He was a true gentleman.

John was born in Porthcawl, Wales, in 1923. He attended local schools through middle school and won a scholarship in 1937 to Hereford Cathedral School, followed by a mathematics scholarship in 1941 to Jesus College, Oxford. After two years at Oxford reading for a wartime degree, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1943 as a university student. He spent several more months at Oxford intensively learning advanced physics to work on technical problems supporting the war effort. In 1944, he completed his BA and began full-time military service. As a World War II officer, he served in India, Burma, Japan, and, briefly, Singapore. He was in India when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and later saw the devastation.

After military service, John earned his MA (Oxon) in 1948 and used his military benefits to return to Oxford and earn a post-graduate certificate (now called MSc) in statistics a year later. On hearing of his change from mathematics to statistics, his mathematics high-school teacher told him it was sad to see him waste such a brilliant young mind.

Given the difficult job market in post-war UK, John became a mathematics instructor at the University of Oklahoma; a year later he resumed his graduate studies in mathematics there. One summer, he was offered a position conducting a door-to-door survey. A door was opened by a bright, attractive history graduate student, Elizabeth Ann Harper. A courtship ensued, and the couple married in 1954. Elizabeth later became a well-respected scholar of American Indian and Spanish history in the American Southwest. John earned a PhD in 1955 with a dissertation in probability involving birth and death processes.

After joining the University of New Mexico as assistant professor for two years, he became a research statistician at the Chevron Research Corporation in the San Francisco Bay Area. Henry Scheffé, a consultant there at the time, became John’s mentor. John remembered Scheffé as a shy, private, and delightful person who invited him to the Tuesday afternoon seminars at the University of California at Berkeley, where John became a visiting assistant professor of statistics for three years. Those were exciting times, including programming the then-new computers to do regression, expanding the methodology of analysis of variance and experimental design, and learning about response surfaces. While at Chevron, John began attending the summer Gordon Research Conferences and later became particularly proud of serving as chair for the 1976 Gordon Conference on Statistics.

John returned to academia in 1961 as a tenured (and later full) professor at the University of California at Davis. While there, he worked closely with agronomists, geneticists, and food scientists, whose experimental design needs were quite different from those he’d encountered at Chevron. In 1967, he joined The University of Texas at Austin, where he remained a professor of mathematics until his retirement as emeritus professor 37 years later. His research often emerged from practical situations, for instance three-quarter replicates to supplement full and fractional factorials and optimal run order to ensure against early termination of an experiment.

John supervised 11 PhD students and more than 60 master’s students. He also consulted for many industrial corporations and government agencies, including Los Alamos National Laboratory and SEMATECH (Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology).

John published 85 technical papers and three books. His 1971 book, Statistical Design and Analysis of Experiments, was innovative in several ways. It used a more mathematical treatment than previous textbooks on the subject and incorporated material from diverse sources, including emerging ideas such as fractional factorial designs. Many concepts are illustrated with both engineering and agricultural applications; some of the examples are used in other well-known DOE books to this day. The book filled a need and was well received. While it is quite concise, John illustrated the concepts with interesting examples in class. The book was republished in 1998 by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics as part of its Classics in Applied Mathematics Series. John also published two other books, Incomplete Block Designs (1980) and Statistical Methods in Engineering and Quality (1990)./

John is survived by his beloved wife of 61 years, a daughter, a son, and two grandchildren.

Visit the University of Texas memorial page to read more about John.

Todd Gary Nick

Todd Gary Nick, 50, of Little Rock, Arkansas, passed away on May 22, 2015. He was born on June 24, 1964, in New Orleans to Edward George and Mable Ruth (Tingle) Nick.

Todd was the director of biostatistics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Department of Pediatrics in conjunction with the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI). He provided outstanding leadership for his section and was integral to all the research programs in the ACHRI. He joined UAMS in 2009.

Todd earned his doctorate in biometry at Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans in 1992. He served on the faculty of the school of health related professions and the school of medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson from 1993 to 2005. He was a professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, with a joint appointment in the division of human genetics, and a biostatistician in the Center for Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center from 2005 until his recruitment to UAMS and ACHRI. During his professional career, Todd contributed to more than 140 publications, was instrumental in the funding of numerous grants, and recently co-authored the book Handbook for Clinical Research: Design, Statistics, and Implementation.

He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Julie Nick of Little Rock; children Adam Edward Nick, Laurie Ann Nick, Paul August Nick, and Evelyn Marie Nick, all of Little Rock; sisters Anne Murray (Lonnie) of Jasper, Alabama, and Kim Liantonio (Frank) of Kenner, Louisiana; and brothers Layne Nick and Leif Nick of Kenner, Louisiana. He was preceded in death by his parents.

Memorials may be made to the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute or Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Todd’s online guestbook can be signed at Little Rock Funeral Home.

Bruce Lindsay

Bruce G. Lindsay, 68, passed away May 5 in State College, Pennsylvania, of cancer. He was the Eberly Family Chair in Statistics at Penn State University, where he joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1979 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Imperial College London. Lindsay spent his entire career at Penn State, where he advised 31 PhD students. He contributed important innovations to the theory of mixture models and likelihood-based estimation, among many other topics. He gave the Fisher Lecture at the 2010 Joint Statistical Meetings, a talk that highlighted his capacity for deep geometric insights and uncanny knack for explaining difficult ideas simply. View Lindsay’s full obituary here.

Frederick Walter Leysieffer

By Myles Hollander

Frederick Walter Leysieffer was born on January 30, 1933, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and passed away at the age of 82 on April 14, 2015, in Jacksonville, Florida.

Fred was raised in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He earned BA (1955) and MA (1956) degrees in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin and a PhD (1964) in mathematics from the University of Michigan. Fred came to Florida State University (FSU) and joined the department of statistics in 1964, freshly equipped with his PhD on Markov chain theory and his new wife, Annelise, from Denmark.

Fred’s major subjects of interest were probability theory, stochastic processes, and sample surveys. His research included two well-respected papers on Markov chain theory in the 1967 and 1970 Annals of Mathematical Statistics and a well-received paper on randomized response models (joint with S. Warner) in the 1976 Journal of the American Statistical Association. He directed the PhD dissertations of A.M. Abdel-Moneim, Michael Schell, and Michael Proschan.

Fred was an excellent teacher and taught most of the department’s probability courses in the department’s early years. His forte was academic administration, and he had a signal administrative career at FSU. He was chair of the department of statistics (1981–1987, 1990–1993), acting dean of the college of arts and sciences (1994–1995), associate dean of the college (1994–1997), assistant vice president for academic affairs (1997–1998), and associate vice president for academic affairs and associate provost (1998–2003), when he retired as professor emeritus. In his positions as associate dean and vice president, he worked closely with provost Larry Abel to oversee monetary matters and budgets. At meetings of the college, Fred was often cited for his innovative contributions. Even after he officially retired in 2003, he worked for nearly a decade in the Office of Research with the vice president for research, Kirby Kemper. Fred loved the FSU administration, and the administration held him in high esteem.

There are FSU campus tributes to Fred, including a plaque in the Williams building courtyard honoring him for his oversight of the Williams building renovation, completed in 2001. He had to work hard on that renovation, as he recalled it involved meshing 13 different landings. He also was recently honored with a lecture hall in the aeropropulsion, mechatronics, and energy building that he worked to bring to fruition in 2012. In 2012, Fred was awarded an FSU Torch Award during a fall meeting of the general faculty. The Torch Award is named for the three torches in the university’s seal: Vires, Artes, and Mores. Fred received the Vires Award symbolizing moral, physical, and intellectual strength.

As much as Fred liked his work, his true love was his family. He was graced with an energetic and supporting wife, Annelise; three talented daughters, Kirsten, Suzanne, and Beth; two fine sons-in-law, Mike and Jim; and four grandchildren, Austin, Gus, Chris, and Sean. Fred was always beaming in their presence. He would take a step back at activities and enjoy watching the people in his life shine.

Fred Leysieffer had many friends, and my wife, Glee, and I were privileged to be among them. We observed first-hand the growth of Kirsten, Suzanne, and Beth from delightful young girls to teen-aged Tallahassee Lassies to lovely and accomplished young women. We saw Annelise emerge from a young bride to a major participant in university activities who earned her PhD in French along the way.

Fred and Annelise were terrific parents for their daughters. Fred was an active, involved parent who took pride in his daughters’ accomplishments. When Annelise was a Girl Scout leader for their daughters, Fred became involved in teaching camping skills. He instilled in his daughters a love for northern Florida, taking them hiking and canoeing in the lush environment.

Throughout his life, Fred remained an active presence in the lives of Kirsten, Suzanne, and Beth, offering council and support when requested. When Beth needed an adviser for her honors thesis in English studies, she asked her father for a recommendation. Fred recommended me and Beth asked me to be her adviser. It was a pleasure for me to work with Beth and see her excel in a different light.

Fred and Annelise introduced their daughters to international travel, taking them abroad during their childhood and young adulthood, often to their families’ countries of origin—Germany and Denmark. These travels helped the young ladies become confident international citizens of the world. The Leysieffers traveled throughout their lives, often together and sometimes independently due to family concerns. At times, it was challenging to have both of them jointly attend an event, as one or the other was abroad.

Fred strongly supported Annelise in her volunteer activities for the community and university. Annelise has served in numerous official positions for the FSU Faculty and Friends Club, and Fred became a full partner and frequent attendee at events with Annelise. When Annelise became vice president and then president of the club, Fred took on the important task of membership. Together, they held many club events at their home and remained committed to the club through their involvement. They enjoyed yearly activities together such as the Halloween costume party, Valentine’s Day dance, and Mardi Gras party.

Annelise has been active in Phi Beta Kappa for many years. When she became president of Phi Beta Kappa, Fred was always in attendance at the initiation ceremonies. He helped line up initiates and pass out programs. On April 12, just two days before he passed away, he looked dapper and relaxed, accompanied by Suzanne, to support Annelise as she presided over the Phi Beta Kappa initiation ceremony.

Fred and Annelise were always excellent hosts, at departmental parties when he was chair of statistics (orientation parties, ice cream socials, joint dinners with colleagues) and at their annual Christmas parties—attended by a varied cross-section of the university community. Fred and Annelise were community oriented and joined their church in 1969. Fred became treasurer for a time, receiving the Servus Dei award at St. Stephen Lutheran Church in 1982.

Fred and Annelise were early arrivals to Killearn Estates in Tallahassee, where Annelise taught neighbors swimming and exercise for health in the family pool. They set up a pet exchange with neighbors for out-of-town trips. When Glee and I moved to Killearn, they welcomed us with a drop-by, followed by a cozy dinner at their home. Many people can recount similar warm gestures made by the Leysieffers.

Fred fought multiple myeloma with great courage and determination. Annelise was with him every step of the way, driving him weekly to Jacksonville for treatment; she kept abreast of his medical management (appointments, medication, diet, subscribed activity, scheduled events with friends and family). She was a valuable, active member of Fred’s treatment team. Fred impressed his Mayo Clinic doctors with his long survival and became a model for their successful treatment.

When I visited Fred a few weeks before his death, he was in good spirits. He spoke of things he was looking forward to doing, including writing a family history. He was upbeat, a tough fighter, and intended to keep fighting. Throughout his battle, he seldom was down, had a positive attitude, and used his dedication to his family and FSU as weapons in fighting the disease.

Fred Leysieffer will be lovingly remembered by his family, his friends, and Florida State University.