William Henry Kruskal (; October 10, 1919 – April 21, 2005) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

. He is best known for having formulated the Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance (together with W. Allen Wallis), a widely used nonparametric statistical method.

Biography

Kruskal was born to a

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family in

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to a successful fur wholesaler. University of St Andrews, Scotland - School of Mathematics and Statistics: "William Kruskal" by J.J. O'Connor and E.F. Robertson
November 2006 His mother, Lillian Rose Vorhaus Kruskal Oppenheimer, became a noted promoter of

origami ) is the Japanese art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a ...

during the early era of television. He was the oldest of five children, three of whom, including himself, became researchers in mathematics and physics; see

Joseph Kruskal Joseph Bernard Kruskal, Jr. (; January 29, 1928 – September 19, 2010) was an American mathematician, statistician, computer scientist and psychometrician. Personal life Kruskal was born to a Jewish family in New York City to a successful fu ...

and Martin Kruskal. Kruskal left

Antioch College Antioch College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection and began operating in 1852 as a non-secta ...

to attend

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, receiving bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics in 1940 and 1941. He pursued a Ph.D. in

mathematical sciences The Mathematical Sciences are a group of areas of study that includes, in addition to mathematics, those academic disciplines that are primarily mathematical in nature but may not be universally considered subfields of mathematics proper. Statisti ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, graduating in 1955. During the

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, Kruskal served at the U.S. Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia. After brief stints working for his father and lecturing at Columbia, he joined the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

faculty as an instructor in statistics in 1950. In 1958 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.View/Search Fellows of the ASA
, accessed 2016-07-23. He edited the

Annals of Mathematical Statistics The ''Annals of Mathematical Statistics'' was a peer-reviewed statistics journal published by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics from 1930 to 1972. It was superseded by the '' Annals of Statistics'' and the '' Annals of Probability''. In 1 ...

from 1958 to 1961, served as president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1971, and of the American Statistical Association in 1982. Kruskal retired as professor emeritus in 1990. He died in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Notable works

* * * * * * * * The Springer monograph cited is a reprint of the three Goodman and Kruskal ''Journal of the American Statistical Association'' cited above. There is a complet
bibliography
.

References

* The University of Chicago News Office
"William Kruskal, Statistician, 1919–2005"
press release, April 27, 2005.
Kruskal was awarded the Samuel S. Wilks Award in 1978
*

Interview

External links

Guide to the William Kruskal Papers 1964-1973
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kruskal, William 1919 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians 20th-century American Jews Harvard University alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Chicago faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association Presidents of the American Statistical Association Presidents of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics 21st-century American Jews American mathematical statisticians