Jacob Wolfowitz, Herbert Ellis Robbins, Richard was organized in his honor, attended by many
L. Anderson, Raj Chandra Bose, and others too former students and colleagues.
numerous to mention. Minton was the recipient of numerous academic
Minton once related a story in which Fisher was and professional awards, including being named a
sitting in the front row of the audience when he Fellow of the American Statistical Association and
(Minton) gave his first paper as a graduate student. being an early recipient of the ASA Founders Award
As if that fact alone was not enough to frighten for service to the association and the profession. In
an already nervous graduate student, the situa- his honor, the SMU Statistics Department created
tion became “infinitely worse” (Minton’s words) the Paul Minton Award for the student who scores
when Fisher left the room in the middle of the talk. highest on the basic qualifying examination. Also,
Minton told another story about his final PhD oral the ASA created the Paul Minton Service Award,
examination, in which he had a bad case of laryn- which has been given annually since 1992. He was a
R. A. Fisher
gitis that he attributed to nerves. To his knowledge, longtime member of the ASA, IMS, and Biometric
he had the world’s only silent orals. Society. He founded the North Texas Chapter of
Minton returned once again to SMU and the ASA and was active in a variety of roles dur-
began to build a set of courses in mathematical and ing the years he was in Dallas. Later, he was very
applied statistics for students from a wide range of active with the Virginia Academy of Sciences (the
subject-matter departments in the university. These Virginia Chapter of the ASA) and in organizing the
offerings gradually evolved into the formation of Southern Regional Conferences on Statistics. He
the Department of Statistics at SMU, now known participated in numerous committees, task forces,
as the Department of Statistical Science. At the councils, and boards, and he served one term as
same time, Minton began to recognize the impor- vice president of the ASA.
tance of computing in statistics, and, as a result of Minton had an active life outside the statis-
his expressed opinions, he was assigned to direct the tics profession that included a love of classical
first computer center at SMU, which housed the music and the ability to create terrible puns. He
Univac 1103, one of the few large scientific com- combined those interests with his knowledge of
Harold Hotelling
puters available at the time. statistics in the following way. As part of the
Funded primarily by a training grant from the ASA’s 150 celebration in 1989 in Washington,
National Institutes of Health for training biostat- DC, he and some friends created a “statisti-
isticians, Minton established a new Department cal songbook,” from which they performed at
of Statistics at SMU in 1962. It was significant a banquet held on that occasion. In the hands
in obtaining faculty approval of the new depart- of these statistical punsters, the tune “Bali
ment that he had provided research consultation in Hai” from the musical “South Pacific” became
either statistics or computing—or both—to every the results for a test of statistical significance:
department in the university. The new department “Barely High.” These and other rewritten song
offered master’s and doctoral degrees following the lyrics can be found in the songbook, which was
North Carolina model and received consultation subsequently published in the August 1990
and assistance from Cox. The department subse- issue of The American Statistician.
quently expanded to offer degrees at all levels, to In a sense, entertaining audiences with humor-
provide consultative assistance to faculty research ous statistical lyrics to well-known songs became
and outside clients, and to conduct research in sta- another way for Minton to be an advocate for
Jacob Wolfowitz
tistical theory and methods. statistics and promote the profession to a wider
After 10 years of developing and administering world. His life and work as a statistician were
the SMU department, Minton moved to summarized at his memorial service in the words
Richmond, Virginia, to take the position of of his son, Roland: “He recruited students to
dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at the newly developing field of statistics, he found
Virginia Commonwealth University in 1972. money to support them during their student
There, in addition to his duties as dean, Minton days, and he helped them find jobs after they
formed an Institute of Statistics—a form of graduated. Others have said of him that he was
liaison office between the Department of a gentle person, with a gentle temperament, but
Mathematical Sciences in the School of Arts and he changed the lives of hundreds, if not thou-
Sciences and the Department of Biostatistics in sands of statistical students, just as he changed
the Medical College of Virginia. He also was the lives of many others who knew him outside
active in statistical consulting in local industry, the profession.”
including paper manufacturing, polymer plastics A memorial session for Minton was held at the
processors, pharmaceuticals, a national baking 2008 Joint Statistical Meetings in Denver. Papers
William Cochran
company, and a federal agency. He retired from from that session will be included in the ASA
VCU in 1988. That year, a special symposium Archives Collection at Iowa State University. ■
14
AMSTAT NEWS SEPTEMBER 2008
SEPTEMBER AMSTAT FINAL.indd 14 8/20/08 2:26:55 PM
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