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STATISTICIANS IN HISTORY
Interview with
Irene Hess
Sampling Is in
the Details
I
da Irene Hess was born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Her father was a mining engineer in Central
City. Her mother, who graduated from Valparaiso College with her father, worked at home. After
graduating from Indiana University, Hess returned to Central City to teach math and English at the
local junior high school from 1932 to 1942. In 1940, she came to work with Leslie Kish at the Survey
Research Center. Under Kish, she trained many graduate students in the details of sampling. The following
is an interview with Hess, conducted in February 2008 by Fritz Scheuren, an ASA past-president.
[Scheuren] Irene, it is so good to see you well and still active pro-
fessionally at 97. Thanks for letting me interview you for all your
many friends and colleagues who want to catch up with all you
have done. Can we start with something about your family and
early life before you came to the University of Michigan?
[Hess] I grew up in Kentucky. In addition to my parents, I had
one sister, Beulah Marie. I was at Evansville College three years
and then went to Indiana University for one year for a bachelor’s
Fritz Scheuren
degree, but that’s the only degree I have. I guess you want me to
talk about my start as a sampler?
[Scheuren] Well, of course, but a little more please about what
you did before that. Didn’t you teach in high school?
[Hess] No, I taught in junior high school in Central City,
Kentucky. I was really not happy doing something like that,
though. I was always interested in mathematics, and I would have
liked teaching mathematics at a higher level. And, when you are
teaching in public school, you first know that you’re to teach chil-
dren. And I really didn’t enjoy that. I couldn’t enjoy grade-school
SEPTEMBER 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 7
SEPTEMBER AMSTAT FINAL.indd 7 8/20/08 2:26:54 PM
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