Frederick Vail Waugh (1898–1974) was an American

agricultural economist Agricultural economics is an applied field of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fiber products. Agricultural economics began as a branch of economics that specif ...

known for his work relating supply, demand, quality, and marketing in the prices of agricultural products, for his understanding of who benefits from volatility in agricultural pricing, and for his advocacy of

food stamp In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal government program that provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income persons to help them maintai ...

and food distribution policies for the poor. He worked for the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Early life and education

Waugh was the brother of Albert Waugh, long-time provost at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, and the son of

Frank Albert Waugh Frank Albert Waugh (July 8, 1869 – March 20, 1943) was an American landscape architect whose career focused upon recreational uses of United States National Forest, national forests, the production of a highly natural style of landscape design, ...

, who was a professor of horticulture and landscape architecture at the

Massachusetts Agricultural College The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the Flagship university, flagship campus of the Univer ...

(now the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

) and the namesake of the Frank A. Waugh Arboretum at the university. He enlisted in the

United States Army Ambulance Service The United States Army Ambulance Service (USAAS) was a unit of the United States Army established by the United States Department of War during World War I. It was established by General Order No. 75 of the United States Department of War, War Dep ...

for

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and was awarded the

Croix de Guerre The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...

for his service. After the war, he graduated from the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1922. He earned a master's degree in 1924 from

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 ...

, became an instructor at the

in 1925, and completed a Ph.D. in 1929 at

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 ...

Recognition

Waugh is one of the namesakes of the

Frisch–Waugh–Lovell theorem In econometrics, the Frisch–Waugh–Lovell (FWL) theorem is named after the econometricians Ragnar Frisch, Frederick V. Waugh, and Michael C. Lovell. The Frisch–Waugh–Lovell theorem states that if the regression we are concerned with is ...

econometrics Econometrics is an application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics", '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

. He became a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The designation of ASA Fellow has been a sign ...

in 1945, and a

Fellow of the Econometric Society In the scientific discipline of economics, the Econometric Society is a learned society devoted to the advancement of economics by using mathematical and statistical methods. This article is a list of its (current and in memory) fellows. Fellows ...

in 1947. In 1957, the

Agricultural & Applied Economics Association The Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) is a professional association of people working in agricultural and applied economics. History In 1910, the American Farm Management Association was founded at Iowa State University. In 19 ...

named him as a fellow. In 1968, he and his daughter, mathematician

Margaret Maxfield Margaret Alice Waugh Maxfield (February 23, 1926 – December 20, 2016) was an American mathematician and mathematics book author. Education and personal life Margaret Waugh was born on February 23, 1926, in Willimantic, Connecticut. Her father w ...

, won the

Lester R. Ford Award ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of mathematics. It was established by Benjamin Finkel in 1894 and is published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Mathematical Association of America. It is an expositor ...

of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

for a paper on the rational approximation of

square root In mathematics, a square root of a number is a number such that y^2 = x; in other words, a number whose ''square'' (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or y \cdot y) is . For example, 4 and −4 are square roots of 16 because 4 ...

s. A collection of Waugh's selected works was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 1984. His memorabilia from the Army Ambulance Service is collected in the University of Massachusetts Amherst library.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waugh, Frederick V. 1898 births 1974 deaths American recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) 20th-century American economists Agricultural economists Massachusetts Agricultural College alumni Rutgers University alumni Columbia University alumni Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Econometric Society