Quality Writing

Although his explanations could be simple and clear in a face-to-face discussion, his greatest papers remain as difficult for the reader as they were for him to write. As he told me once, when he writes, he must make it foolproof. I replied in a particular instance that he had made it so foolproof that no one would understand it.

His book of 1931 will remain a monument, but it was his book Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control, based on his four lectures given in Washington in 1938, that exposed Shewhart to the statistical world. People then began to understand something about his contributions.

To appreciate a mite of his greatness, one must read not only the two books just mentioned, but his article, “Nature and Origin of Standards of Quality,” Bell System Technical Journal, xxxvii, 1958. One can only ask why schools of business don’t require this article to be read by all professors and students. Why don’t people engaged in consumer research and in advertising research read it? Someday, they will.

Although the writing of papers and books was difficult for him, and his efforts often went wide of the mark, one of his great powers lay in his perseverance in communication by letter. He used his power to work through committees. He knew the importance of getting a strong man at the head of a committee, and he was adept at pushing him in the right direction, without himself being visible. He made his points not so much by giving his own point of view, but by asking questions. Establishment of Committee E–11 on statistical methods in the American Society for Testing Materials is an example of this type of accomplishment. The Shewhart statistical series published by Wiley is another example. He sought out the great thinkers and invited them to write. That an author might disagree with Shewhart’s point of view made no difference to Shewhart, so long as a book would stimulate people to think.

The Statistician

As a statistician, he was, like so many of the rest of us, self-taught on a good background of physics and mathematics. He respected advanced knowledge of statistical theory and studied daily, but he was not always happy with the way people recommended statistical techniques for use.

As a man, he was gentle, genteel, never ruffled, never off his dignity. He knew disappointment and frustration through the failure of many writers in mathematical statistics to understand his point of view. He also knew success. He was president of the American Statistical Association in 1945 and twice president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, in 1937 and 1944. One of the highlights of his life was an invitation from Karl Pearson to give lectures at University College in London in 1932. A visit to Japan later in life, where he saw spectacular results of statistical methods applied in the broad sense of Shewhart, must have been great satisfaction to him. He went to India three times as a guest of P. C. Mahalanobis at the Indian Statistical Institute and received, in 1962, the honorary degree DSc.