of both the American Statistical Association
and the International Statistical Institute.
Dixon had strong opinions about the
Mid-Michigan Chapter
importance of statistical consulting. In his
1993 interview with Nancy Flournoy, now
Announces Election Results
chair of the Department of Statistics at
the University of Missouri-Columbia, he
The mid-Michigan Chapter held its semiannual business meeting/presentation on
elaborated on these opinions, saying that
October 9, 2008, at Central Michigan University. The result of the election (all terms
statistics “is a science in itself, not a branch
are 2009–2010) is as follows:
of mathematics.” Statistical consulting “can
be as imaginative and creative as any artistic
President
endeavor.” Consulting statisticians should
Morteza Marzjarani, Saginaw Valley State University
be rewarded for the “… demonstrated art of
marzjara@svsu.edu
bringing deep insight and truly creative contri-
Vice President
butions to applied research projects.” He was
Frank Dane, Saginaw Valley State University
opposed to having statistics divisions in math-
fdane@svsu.edu
ematics departments and in having separate
statistics departments; he thought it tended to
Chapter Representative
pull statisticians away from being “thoroughly
Taps Maiti, Michigan State University
immersed in fields of application.”
maiti@stt.msu.edu
Dixon and his wife, Glorya, shared
Secretary/Treasurer
a love for traveling the world, enjoying
Jungsywan Sepanski
good friends, playing duplicate bridge, and
sepan1jh@cmich.edu
dancing the night away. Known for his dry,
ironic wit, he was also a master of puns.
Past Presidents
Preceding him in death was Eva M.
Dennis Gilliland, Michigan State University, 2004–2006
Dixon, his first wife and daughter of numer-
John Daniels, Central Michigan University, 2006–2008
ical analyst William Edmund Milne. In
Alla Sikorskii, assistant professor in the Department of Statistics and Probability at
addition to Glorya, his wife of 25 years, he is
Michigan State University gave a talk titled “Conducting Interdisciplinary Research:
survived by his daughters, Janet D. Elashoff
Collaboration of a Statistician and a Health Researcher.” For more information about
and Kathleen Dixon. Dixon and Glorya
shared 14 grandchildren (two are biostatis-
the mid-Michigan Chapter, visit
www.stt.msu.edu/asa.
ticians) and five great-grandchildren.
Freedman served on the editorial board Statistics. I couldn’t think of a better book.”
of The American Statistician until his Freedman’s contributions to statistical
Obituary death. Peter Westfall, TAS editor, wrote, education are as noteworthy as his research
“When I was a student at UC Davis, I saw and service contributions. The aforemen-
David A. Freedman
David give a very lucid talk on the boot- tioned Statistics was groundbreaking in its
strap. I owe him a debt of gratitude for promotion of sound statistical reasoning
David A. Freedman, professor of statistics
my first publication, which was inspired in undergraduate education, rather than
at the University of California, Berkeley,
by this talk.” Westfall also noted, “When I the typical “plug-and-chug” mathematical
recently died of bone cancer at age 70.
asked David if he would serve on the edi- approach. His more recent book, Statistical
Freedman was a giant in both theoretical
torial board of TAS, he made a comment Models, likewise demystifies complex meth-
and applied statistics—his theoretical pub-
to the effect ‘I have made it a habit in my ods used in social sciences, in particular.
lications ranged from foundations of sta-
career to rarely say no to editors.’ He was Among others, Persi Diaconis and Erich
tistics to Bayesian methods (e.g., Dirichlet
incredibly helpful as an AE, and also very Lehmann provided testimonial recommen-
processes, deFinnetti’s theorem, Bayesian
helpful in giving me feedback on my own dations in the liner notes.
asymptotics, and Bayesian vulnerability to
personal research.” Freedman was a Fellow of the
Dutch book) to the bootstrap (e.g., regres-
Michael Last, who earned his MA from American Statistical Association and an
sion, time series). His applied work includ-
UC Berkeley in 2002, wrote, “David is active member of many other learned
ed applications to the census and statistics
one of the largest influences on me as an societies, including the American
in litigation, sociology, and epidemiology
applied statistician. A course from David Academy of Arts and Sciences. Freedman
(i.e., the effect of salt on blood pressure, my first semester has come to define what also won the John J. Carty Award for
the efficacy of mammography, animal stud- I consider a ‘good analysis.’ When I want the Advancement of Science from the
ies of carcinogens, and causal inference and to see how good an analysis I’ve done is, I National Academy of Sciences.
limitations of regression modeling). He ask myself how it would have been treated A detailed obituary compiled by
was active even recently in his research and in his course. When a group I was in was Kenneth Wachter and Philip Stark of UC
service, as his vita—which may be viewed ordered books to teach the mathemati- Berkeley and James Robins of Harvard may
at www.stat.berkeley.edu/~freedman—shows
cians about statistics, I included a request be found at
www.berkeley.edu/news/media/
several 2008 publications.
for Freedman, Pisani, and Purves’ book, releases/2008/10/20_freedman.shtml. n
DECEMBER 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 37
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