A small, but select, group of people came Friday to University of Wisconsin, Madison for the celebration George E. P. Box’s 100th birthday, including his second wife Joan Fisher, whose father Ronald invented modern-day design of experiments (DOE) and the whole field of industrial statistics. Box, who doubled down on Fisher by his development of response surface methods (RSM), went by the name “Pel”. This nickname stemmed from the second of his middle names “Edward Pelham” (E. P. not standing for Elvis Presley as some who admired him thought more apropos).
In my blog on March 30, 2013—just after his death, I relayed stories of my two memorable encounters with Box. Friday marked my first visit to UW-Madison since I last saw him in 1996 for his short-course on DOE. Looking over Lake Mendota from the Memorial Union Terrace brought back memories of the incredible view during my class, when Comet Hyakutake peaked in spectacular fashion before rapidly diminishing. I rate Hyakutake on par with Hale-Bopp that came a year later, just as I view Box and Fisher as the luminaries for DOE.
Inspired by the Centenary, I ordered a copy of Box’s autobiography—The Accidental Statistician, which he completed in the last year of his life. I look forward to reading more about this remarkable fellow.
The video presented by Box at the time of publication—March 2013—provides a sampling of the stories he told to inspire experimenters to be more observant and methodical:
- How a monk discovered the secret to making champagne,
- What to make of seeing bloody Mr. Jones running down the street pursued by Mrs. Jones with a hatchet (good one for this Halloween season!).