Mary Newton Torrey (February 2, 1910 - January 7, 1998) was an American mathematical statistician and

quality control Quality control (QC) is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. ISO 9000 defines quality control as "a part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements". This approach plac ...

specialist for

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...

. With Harold F. Dodge at Bell Labs, she was an early contributor to the theory of

acceptance sampling Acceptance sampling uses statistical sampling to determine whether to accept or reject a production lot of material. It has been a common quality control technique used in industry. It is usually done as products leave the factory, or in some ...

. The Dodge–Torrey continuous sampling plans are named after her and Dodge. Torrey was born in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

, and graduated in 1930 from

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

as a Durant Scholar (Wellesley's highest honor) with a double major in mathematics and physics. In that year she joined the Quality Assurance Department of Bell Labs. While working there, she earned a master's degree in mathematical statistics from

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 ...

in 1946. In 1958, she was elected to be 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 ...

"for her contributions to the theory of sampling inspection, for her able analyses of engineering data, and for her clear and concise presentation of statistical quality control in electronics". She was also a fellow of the American Society for Quality Control. Torrey died on January 7, 1998, at the age of 87.Mary N Torrey
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torrey, Mary Newton 1910 births 1998 deaths American statisticians Women statisticians Wellesley College alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Scientists at Bell Labs Fellows of the American Statistical Association