STATISTICIANS IN HISTORY
Paul Dixon Minton
Building a
Department
P
aul Dixon Minton was born in Dallas, at SMU in the Department of Mathematics. It
Texas, the third of four sons in the family was at that point that Minton was introduced to
of William M. and Addie Evelyn Croft probability and statistics by Edwin Mouzon, who
Minton. Having grown up in the economically had, himself, written a dissertation on statistics
difficult times of the Great Depression, he was at the University of Illinois. After completing
able to attend college only because he received an his master’s degree, Minton was encouraged by
“emergency scholarship” to attend Southern Mouzon to continue his graduate studies in the
Methodist University (SMU). The university was new program in statistics at The University of
Dwight B. Brock,
experiencing its own difficulties, struggling to fill North Carolina.
Westat
classes, and decided to offer such scholarships to Minton earned a PhD in statistics from
young Dallasites who had done well in high North Carolina State University under the
school, were recommended by their principals, tutelage of Gertrude Cox, during the time the
and could not otherwise afford to go to school. Institute of Statistics of the Greater University
Minton earned a bachelor’s and master’s of North Carolina consisted of the Department
degree from SMU, a school to which he would of Mathematical Statistics at UNC Chapel Hill
return later to found and direct a department of and the Department of Experimental Statistics
statistics. His studies were interrupted by World at NC State in Raleigh. Many famous statisti-
War II, during which time he worked as a crypta- cians were either faculty members or visitors
nalyst for the FBI. Following the war, he returned when Minton was a student there, including
to Dallas as an instructor and graduate student R. A. Fisher, Harold Hotelling, William Cochran,
SEPTEMBER 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 13
SEPTEMBER AMSTAT FINAL.indd 13 8/20/08 2:26:55 PM
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