 |
| 1. 1949 El Rodeo |
Fluoridation, though, was only
a small element in the range of his interests and activities. He was
one of those “larger than life” and multi-talented intellectuals who flourish
in college towns. Present at the start of the full-campus phase of UC Davis history,
he might even deserve the title of being the first in the line of eccentric/brilliant
UCD professors who have blessed our community right up to the present day.
His life was long and complicated
and requires at least two posts to cover. This one describes his earlier years
and a few of his statistical critique activities. The next one will focus on
his later years, his amazing involvement in the arts, and his role as something
of a guru.
 |
| 2. 1951 El Rodeo |
I draw together aspects of
his life with the understanding that I have not verified many of the assertions
published about him and some of these claims might be as much legend as fact.
• Born to the family of a prominent Omaha,
Nebraska physician in 1912, he earned an A. B. in Mathematics at the University
of Nebraska in 1933.
• He studied at the Sorbonne before attending
the California Institute of Technology where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1939.
• After
holding teaching and research posts at Minnesota and Virginia, he entered the
U.S Navy as a lieutenant in 1942.
• Assigned as the officer in charge of a program
at Princeton aimed at developing a device called a "computer,” he was promoted
to naval lieutenant commander. For a time, he was also in charge of an IBM
project at Harvard working on a “calculator.”
• Always also interested in the arts, he became
an understudy member of the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1946 and 1948 (and
later danced with the Sacramento ballet for many years).
 |
| 3. |
• He joined
what was then the UCD department of mathematics and physics in 1948.
• In addition to an interest in statistics, his
formal areas of mathematical studies included differentials and abstract
spaces.
• By all the accounts I have read by or heard
from people who took his courses, he was a highly engaging and effective
teacher. He taught a variety of courses and was especially known for a course
on “the pitfalls of faulty statistical data.”
• At one point he was the organizer of a
“Statistical Frauds Group” dedicated to identifying the misuse of statistics in
public policy (images 3 and 4).
* * *
The above matters are only a preface to his even more intriguing later years, which are the topic of the
next post.
 |
| 4 |
