Virginia Tech Department of Statistics: The first fifty years
Deciding what to include in this paper has been very difficult since there is so much that one could discuss concerning the development of statistics at Virginia Tech. I would like to acknowledge the report written by Boyd Harshbarger in 1972 after stepping down as department head. The report is an unpublished monograph titled STATISTICS and PERSONAL REMINISCENCES, VPI & SU, 1927-72. I have borrowed considerably from this report for early facts and incidents related to the early years of the department. These early years give, I believe, a good picture of how the department developed. Though the department is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, statistics activities at VIRGINIA TECH that are related to Boyd Harshbarger actually started much earlier. We will therefore begin our review of the history in 1935, fourteen years before the formal beginning of the department. The presentation will be broken into three time periods consisting of the EARLY YEARS (1935-1972), the MIDDLE YEARS (1973-1999), and the FUTURE ERA (1999-infinity).
statistics anniversary history