Mervin Field (March 11, 1921 – June 8, 2015) was an American pollster of

public opinion Public opinion, or popular opinion, is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. In the 21st century, public opinion is widely thought to be heavily ...

in the state of California.

Biography

Field was born in 1921, the youngest of five children, in

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

and graduated from Princeton High School in 1938. His parents were Jewish emigrants from Russia. His subsequent formal education was limited to a few months each at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

night school, the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. His first experience with survey research was in his high school junior year, when in a chance occurrence he was introduced to the polling pioneer, Dr.

George Gallup George Horace Gallup (November 18, 1901 – July 26, 1984) was an American pioneer of survey sampling techniques and inventor of the Gallup poll, a statistics, statistically-based survey sampling, survey sampled measure of opinion polls, public ...

. Field's first survey was in determining student preferences for his high school senior class president. Prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Field worked for

Opinion Research Corporation Opinion Research Corporation is a demographic, health, and market research company based in Princeton, New Jersey, US. It was founded in 1938 by Claude Robinson and George Gallup, although Gallup left the firm in 1939. Opinion Research Corp wa ...

(ORC) and the

Gallup Poll Gallup, Inc. is an American multinational analytics and advisory company based in Washington, D.C. Founded by George Gallup in 1935, the company became known for its public opinion polls conducted worldwide. Gallup provides analytics and man ...

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

. He founded the Field Research Corporation (FRC), a commercial consumer and opinion research practice operating locally, regionally and nationally. He married Virginia Fallon in 1949, and later divorced. Field was married to Marilyn Hammer from 1957 until her death in 2006. Field died in 2015, of natural causes.

Field Poll

The Field Poll was an independent,

nonpartisan Nonpartisan or non-partisan may refer to: __NOTOC__ General political concepts * Nonpartisanship, also known as Nonpartisanism, co-operation without reference to political parties * Non-partisan democracy, an election with no official recognition ...

public opinion news service, with a focus on California. It shut down at the end of 2016. As of late 2009, it has published more than 2300 reports. It relied on financial support from newspapers and television stations, the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

, the

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a Public university, public university system in California, and the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest public university system in the United States ...

system, and various non-profit foundations, not from political candidates or interests. Since 1956, the Poll has deposited its survey data with the University of California and California State University campuses, to make them available for scholars, media, and public policy makers. It is a unique and rich archive that is used in political science, journalism. sociology, and survey research methodology courses.

References

External links

the Mervin Field
at the Science Literacy Project
The Field Research Corporation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Mervin 1921 births 2015 deaths Opinion polling in the United States People from New Brunswick, New Jersey People from Princeton, New Jersey People from the San Francisco Bay Area Princeton High School (New Jersey) alumni American people of Russian-Jewish descent Pollsters Rutgers University alumni