John Michael

John Rhodes Michael passed away on January 7 after a long illness.

John was born and raised in the Washington, DC, area and graduated from Duke University in 1967. After graduation, he went on to serve in the United States Air Force as an intelligence offer/captain during the Vietnam War until 1973.

A scientist at heart, John forever pursued new ways of thinking and questioning traditional paradigms. So after his service in the Air Force, he continued his education and earned his PhD in statistical science from Southern Methodist University and another PhD in industrial organizational psychology from The George Washington University.

John worked as a research scientist and consultant and published numerous renowned scientific papers.

To read his full obituary, visit the Dallas Morning News website.

Joseph Garcia

Joe Garcia passed away on August 27 after a short illness.

A technical director at Combustion Engineering and teacher at the Hartford Graduate center of Rensselaer, he “retired” to Newcastle, Maine, where he taught math and statistics at Southern Maine Community College.

Read more about Joseph at The Hartford Courant website.

Dattaprabhakar Vinayak (D.V.) Gokhale

Dattaprabhakar Vinayak (D.V.) Gokhale, emeritus professor in the statistics department at the University of California at Riverside, passed away February 27, 2016, shortly before his 80th birthday.

Studying under a Fulbright travel grant from the Institute of International Education, D.V. earned his degree from the University of California at Berkeley under the mentorship of Erich Lehmann. Following his graduation, he spent a year at the University of Pune, India, before joining what was then the department of biostatistics at UC-Riverside in 1970. The department subsequently became the department of applied statistics and was chaired by F. N. David. D.V. was the department chair at UC-Riverside from 1985–1988 and retired in 2000, but remained active in the department through his research with colleagues, periodic voluntary teaching, and an array of social- and career-oriented events with students.

D.V. was a recognized scholar for his contributions to information theory, discrete data analysis, and nonparametric statistics that included the analysis of multidimensional contingency tables and correspondence analysis. In 1978, he published a book with Solomon Kullback titled Information Approach to the Analysis of Contingency Tables. This text was the basis for his popular graduate course in the analysis of discrete data.

D.V. is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute.

During his career at UC-Riverside, D.V. mentored 13 PhD students and was a strong advocate for many others. Affectionately known as “Dr. G,” D.V. was an open and embracing figure in the department, always looking for the potential in every student and searching out opportunities for them to demonstrate it. He was a regular reader of Advanced Placement Statistics exams. In 2012, the department established an annual Gokhale Lecture, in which speakers primarily aim their talks to undergraduate students.

In 2006, through donations and his own personal bequest, D.V. established the D.V. Gokhale International Grants in Statistics Program in collaboration with the Institute of International Education. The program is designed to enable statistics students and faculty to participate in an exchange program between India and the United States.

D.V. will be remembered as a kind and considerate friend by all who had occasion to interact with him for his ready smile and inclination to be genuinely interested in listening to other people. In addition to his wife, Asha, he is survived by a son, Vinay, and his wife, Rani; a daughter, Dalika, and her husband, Robert; and four grandchildren.