Obituaries for February 2023

Ray A. Waller

Ray Waller, an ASA Founder and former executive director, passed away suddenly on December 28, 2022.

Waller earned his BA in mathematics from Southwestern College in 1959 and his MS in statistics from Kansas State University in 1963. He graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with a PhD in mathematical statistics and minor in operations research in 1967, and then joined the faculty of Kansas State University, where he taught undergraduate and graduate statistics courses, provided statistical consulting services, and directed the theses of several students.

In 1974, Waller joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Statistics Group, where he ultimately became the directorate office leader for university research and science education. In 1995, he became executive director and secretary of the ASA.

Waller and his wife, Carolyn, established the ASA’s Waller Education Award and Waller Distinguished Teaching Career Award in 2002. They also set up a scholarship for statistics students at Kansas State University.

In 2004, Waller received the ASA Founders Award for his many contributions to both the profession and association, including his service as executive director and secretary from 1995–2001. He was honored for improving service to members, the internal efficiency of the ASA office through effective reorganization and well-chosen hiring, attention to detail, and a continuing sense of responsibility for the welfare of the ASA and its members.

Throughout his career, Waller led several successful teams of statisticians, systems analysts, engineers, economists, education professionals, and scientists in collaborative interdisciplinary research projects involving innovative applications of statistics. He has been published in several academic journals, including the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Technometrics, and Annals of Statistical Mathematics.

The ASA staff offer his family our deepest sympathies. He will be missed.

Winston Ashton Richards

ASA Fellow Winston Ashton Richards passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving wife, Kathleen, and his children, in-laws, and grandchildren on December 19, 2022, at his home in Durham, North Carolina.

Born in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago, to the late Edward Richards and Leanora Nimblett-Richards, Richards came to the United States in 1955 and earned degrees from Marquette University and University of Western Ontario.

Richards was a distinguished professor of mathematics and statistics at Penn State University, Harrisburg, and a visiting professor at Stanford University and the University of the West Indies.

Committed to helping others, Richards created the Winston A. Richards Prize in Statistics, which is given to the best-performing statistics student and presented at the annual faculty of science and technology awards event in the department of science and technology at the University of the West Indies.

Read Richards’s complete obituary.