Benedetto Bongiorno

Benedetto Bongiorno passed away March 30, 2016. He was born on May 19, 1938, in New York, New York, to Antonio and Brigida Bongiorno.

Benedetto graduated from La Salle Academy and then Fordham University with a BS in accountancy. He went on to forge a distinguished career in public accounting with his own firm in New York and Boston, merging into J.K. Lasser, then Touche Ross. Ultimately, he served as the national director of real estate for Deloitte and Touche after the final merger. Benedetto was an established expert in real estate accounting and auditing and, for the past several years, led both the research and consulting efforts of Natural Decision Systems, Inc., in the areas of accounting, auditing, and internal control, advising private companies as well as national, regional, and local accounting firms.

Benedetto authored the original version of the Real Estate Accounting & Reporting Manual, published in 1988 by Warren, Gorham, and Lamont; Audit of Real Estate Transactions 1996 Miller GAAS Guide, published by Harcourt Brace & Co.; and the Accountants’ Handbook, Real Estate Section 12th Edition, published by Wiley in 2013, along with numerous articles and training courses.

Over his long career, he was a lecturer at a wide variety of professional and academic conferences and, in 2010, he received patents in the system and method of continuous assurance in both internal control and audit.

Read more about Benedetto.

Borror

Connie Borror

Connie M. Borror, the first woman to earn American Society for Quality’s (ASQ) Shewhart Medal, passed away April 10, 2016, in Phoenix, Arizona. She was 49 years old.

Connie was a professor in the division of mathematical and natural sciences at Arizona State University West. She earned her PhD in industrial engineering from Arizona State University and joined the division of mathematical and natural sciences in 2005. Connie was a fellow of the ASA and ASQ and an editor of the journal Quality Engineering, as well as a former director of the certificate in statistics program and co-director of the Committee on Statistics at ASU. She was awarded the Shewhart Medal in 2016.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to help defray the cost of her medical and funeral expenses.

Read more about Connie’s life.

John Robert Reeder

John Robert Reeder, a statistics professor at American River College and Sierra College, Sacramento, passed away March 1, 2016.

John was born in Peoria, Illinois; his father, Bart, was an iron-worker and his mom, Bernice, a school teacher and portrait photographer. After his father died when he was three, his mother and her sister, Lil, raised John and his brother, Richard, in Chillicothe, Illinois.

John graduated from Bradley University with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in math, and then finished two years toward his doctorate in statistics from the University of Minnesota.

For 22 years, John was also an Air Force pilot and pilot instructor.

Read John’s complete obituary.

Ware

James Ware

Submitted by David Hunter, Harvard Medical School

James H. Ware, the Frederick Mosteller Professor of Biostatistics and associate dean for clinical and translational science at the Harvard Chan School, passed away April 26 after a long battle with cancer.

Jim was dean for academic affairs at the school from 1990–2009, including serving as acting dean in 1997–1998.

Jim had a longstanding interest in studies of pulmonary and cardiovascular disease, and it is no exaggeration to say his research efforts have helped save thousands—if not millions—of lives. From 1980 to 1995, he was a co-investigator in the landmark Six Cities Study of Air Pollution and Health, which has had a profound effect on Clean Air Act regulations in the U.S. and efforts to limit air pollution around the world.

He was internationally recognized for his publications on the design and analysis of longitudinal and multi-level physiologic, clinical, and biological studies and on methodologic issues in clinical trials research. He served as a statistical consultant to the New England Journal of Medicine for more than 20 years. He was also senior statistician for randomized trials of strategies for protecting the brain during surgical repair of transposition of the great arteries in infants, chelation therapy for lead-exposed children and, more recently, research examining vitamin D supplementation to prevent development of diabetes and the role of sleep apnea in diabetes.

After concluding his service as dean for academic affairs, Jim returned to research and teaching. Since 2008, he served as director of the biostatistics program at the Harvard Center for Clinical and Translational Science.

Jim had a great dedication to helping students, both undergraduate and graduate students—literally taking his work home with him between 1996–2003, when he and his wife, Janice Ware, served as masters of Cabot House at Harvard College.

In addition to his wife, Jim is survived by his daughter, Cameron Ware; his son, Jake Ware; Jake’s wife, Siu Ping Chin Feman; and his sister, Elaine Mansfield.

Read more about Jim’s life at the memoriam page on Harvard’s website.