used daily to reduce process failure and
efficiently allocate and deliver resources.
Obituary
As the author or coauthor of some of
the seminal books in his field, Hunter also
Daniel Goodman Horvitz
has lectured extensively throughout the
United States and overseas, particularly in
A devoted son, brother, husband, father, soldier, teacher, and
Korea and China. He is a founding editor
mentor, Dan Horvitz died June 1 in Boca Raton, Florida, at 87.
of Technometrics, published by the ASA and
He was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and graduated
American Society for Quality (ASQ).
from the University of Massachusetts, where he met his wife,
Hunter is a member of the National
Shirley. He earned a PhD in statistics at Iowa State University.
Academy of Engineering and has won several
He served in the U.S. Army on the Manhattan Project at Los
of the most prestigious national and inter-
Alamos, New Mexico, during WWII. He spent two years in
national awards in statistics and industrial
Burma for the Ford Foundation and was among the earliest
engineering. He is a fellow of the ASQ, the
scientists to join the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) in 1962,
Royal Statistical Society, and the American
rising to executive vice president in 1983.
Horvitz
Association for the Advancement of Science.
Horvitz joined with Donovan Thompson, a fellow gradu-
Hunter earned his bachelor’s degree in
ate student at Iowa State College, to advance the fledgling field
electrical engineering, a master’s degree in
of statistics in 1952 by creating the Horvitz-Thompson Estimator. The statistical
engineering mathematics, and a doctorate in
tool—in wide use today—provides better estimates than simple random samples by
experimental statistics from North Carolina
allowing statisticians to weight factors within a population for improved accuracy.
State University.
At RTI, Horvitz helped design samples for the annual National Assessment of
Courtesy of the Penn State web site,
Educational Progress (NAEP), which rated U.S. student progress in mathematics,
http://live.psu.edu/story/30900
science, reading, and other disciplines. Students 9, 13, and 17 years old were tested.
RTI helped launch the national test in 1969 and conducted the surveys, with an
Jeannette Y. Lee average annual sample of 75,000 students, until 1983.
In the mid-1970s, Horvitz directed survey design and data collection for the
Jeannette Y. Lee recently joined the fac-
National Medical Care Expenditure Survey (NMCES). The study, commissioned
ulty of the Department of Biostatistics at the
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, required following patients’
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
visits to hospitals and doctors to determine how the bill for each visit or stay was
(UAMS) in Little Rock. She is responsible
paid. It surveyed patients, doctors, hospitals, employers, and insurance companies.
for directing the statistical activity within the
The education and health-cost surveys are still carried out by the federal govern-
Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute,
ment to guide policy changes.
located at UAMS.
Horvitz worked on new ways to model human populations and improve accu-
Lee was previously with the Biostatistics
racy when asking sensitive questions about behaviors such as the use of illegal drugs
Unit of the Comprehensive Cancer Center
and abortion. He taught at North Carolina State and UNC-Chapel Hill. His work
at the University of Alabama at Birmingham,
helped federal policymakers better understand issues of health care expenditures,
where she was a professor in the Department
drug abuse, and educational progress. Horvitz was a former vice president and exec-
of Medicine. She is the director of the statistical
utive director of the American Statistical Association and received the Distinguished
center for the AIDS-Associated Malignancies
Service Award of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences. He also received
Clinical Trials Consortium, funded by NCI,
the ASA’s Founders Award in 1993. Horvitz was a former trustee and president
and for the Sexually Transmitted Infections
of the Blumenthal Jewish Home, now in Greensboro, and a former president of
Clinical Trials Group, funded by NIAID.
TempleBeth Or in Raleigh, North Carolina.
She has coauthored more than 100 papers
He is survived by three children—Gary of Richmond, California; Paul of West
and serves on a number of NIH review and
Newton, Massachusetts; and Barbara of Delray Beach, Florida—and three grand-
advisory groups.
children, Casey, Eva, and Zachary.
Larry Nelson
Larry Nelson of North Carolina State
University will receive
the Rob Kempton
Award for Outstanding
Contribution to
become A Lifetime Member!
the Development
There are three Lifetime Membership options available to meet the specific needs of
of Biometry in the
those who wish to become lifetime members of the ASA. Learn more about lifetime
Developing World
membership. www.amstat.org/membership/index.cfm?fuseaction=lifemembers
on July 15 at IBC
Dublin 2008.
Nelson
JULY 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 35
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