In the opening words of his preface to Studies in American Demography, published in 1940, Walter Willcox said, “During the last half century, demography, or the statistical study of population, has grown from infancy into lusty youth.” During the same half century, Willcox published what he called “fragments” of an Introduction to American Demography, but found himself handicapped by the then inadequacies of American birth and death statistics. Nevertheless, he pursued his goal and published more than 100 of his “more important writings.”

In 1967, W. Edwards Deming wrote a personal biography on Walter Shewhart for The American Statistician. The following is taken from that article.

Morris Howard Hansen has been referred to as the 20th century’s most influential statistician when it comes to the evolution of survey methodology. He also influenced and inspired others. What’s interesting is that he didn’t start out wanting to be a statistician.

ASA members are as diverse as the areas they study. In an effort to get to know our leading members better, we asked some of them to answer a few questions. Here, they tell us who inspired them and how they chose to be statisticians.

About 25 years ago, I managed to save just enough money to get my prized 1969 Mustang fixed and painted. At dinner the night after I got it back from the body shop, my 9-year-old son, Derek, said, “Dad, some of the MUSTANG letters on the trunk are loose.” I reacted with annoyance, saying, “No, they’re not, Derek. I just paid a lot of money to get the car fixed and painted. It’s fine!” The rest of the meal passed in silence.

A week later, I was pumping gas and discovered I was now the proud owner of a MU TANG.