Richard Burton McHugh (October 25, 1923 – June 1, 2016) was an American statistician. McHugh was a professor of biometry at University of Minnesota School of Public Health for over 30 years.

Early life and education

McHugh was born in Villard, Minnesota and grew up in Minneapolis, MN. He earned a bachelor of arts in statistics with a minor in mathematics, magna cum laude, in 1944 from

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. He completed a master of arts in 1949. McHugh earned a doctor of philosophy at University of Minnesota in 1954. His dissertation was titled ''On the scaling of psychological data by latent structure analysis''. His advisors were

Leonid Hurwicz Leonid Hurwicz (; August 21, 1917 – June 24, 2008) was a Polish–American economist and mathematician, known for his work in game theory and mechanism design. He originated the concept of incentive compatibility, and showed how desired outcom ...

and Jacob Bearman.

Career

Mchugh was Assistant Professor of Statistics and Psychology at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

Ames, Iowa Ames () is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States, located approximately north of Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines in central Iowa. It is the home of Iowa State University (ISU). According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Ames ha ...

from 1950 until 1954 when he was appointed Associate Professor. In 1956 he began working at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis as Associate Professor of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health; he became Professor of Biometry in 1961; and was appointed Professor and Director, Division of Biometry in 1968. He served on the faculty at University of Minnesota School of Public Health for over 30 years. He was elected as 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 1967.

Personal life

A practicing

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, Richard McHugh was married to Rosemary McHugh, nee Jarvis, with whom he had 2 daughters and 3 sons. He was preceded in death by his wife, daughter and 10 siblings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McHugh, Richard B. 1923 births 2016 deaths People from Ames, Iowa Mathematicians from Iowa Mathematicians from Minnesota University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni University of Minnesota faculty American statisticians 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Fellows of the American Statistical Association