William (Bill) Strawderman

William (Bill) Strawderman, a brilliant mathematical statistician and a wonderful colleague and leader, passed away on October 1, 2024.

Born on April 25, 1941, Bill received a BS in Engineering Mathematics from University of Rhode Island in 1963, an MS in Mathematics from Cornell University in 1965, and an MS and PhD in Statistics in 1969 from Rutgers University under the direction of Arthur Cohen. He spent his entire professional career at Rutgers University, from 1970 to 2022 when he became Emeritus. As a Distinguished Professor of Statistics and a world-renowned leader in decision theory and Bayesian analysis, he was known in the research world for his ingenious creativity and rigorous mathematical prowess. He received numerous awards including fellowship of the American Statistical Association and the IMS, and election as a member of the International Statistical Institute. He was a keynote speaker for numerous major international conferences, delivering many prestigious lectures, including an IMS Medallion Lecture. Among his colleagues he was revered for his integrity, geniality, wisdom, and an unending passion for statistics.

Bill held an overlapping appointment with the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, an overlapping adjunct position at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and consultant positions with pharmaceutical companies.

At Rutgers, Bill served as department chair between 1977–83, and again from 1989–92. He was instrumental in building up Statistics into the leading department it is today. His gentle demeanor, charisma, wisdom, and powerful, creative arguments made him an effective leader, in front of administrators and his colleagues. His was a voice always to be listened to.

Bill’s contributions to statistics were both fundamental and profound. The author of two books and more than 220 papers, Bill made deep and influential contributions to statistical decision theory, multivariate analysis and Bayesian analysis, all with lasting impacts. His contributions to estimation theory concerning admissibility, minimaxity, Bayesian estimation, multiparameter shrinkage, and estimation under concave loss functions and restricted parameter spaces were novel, important, groundbreaking and timely. In particular, Bill was the first to provide proper Bayes admissible minimax shrinkage estimators of a multivariate normal mean, introducing the now-pervasive class of prior distributions, which have come to be known as the Strawderman priors. Beyond his many theoretical contributions, Bill also made substantial, valuable contributions to applications in ecology, resource management, and interlaboratory testing.

Bill was known to be an inspiring and caring teacher. He supervised numerous students, many of whom are now prominent scholars. His collaborators spread to many continents. Bill devoted his time and effort to serving the statistics profession, including as IMS Council member, Chairman of the SBSS Section of the ASA, and as Associate Editor of several leading statistical journals.

Bill was an accomplished musician, playing clarinet and several other instruments. He became All-State clarinet for Rhode Island while in high school, and then in college he became the drum major of the marching band and first chair clarinet of the concert band. A source of great enjoyment throughout his entire life, Bill played in bands with a solid following for many years.

Bill will be greatly missed for his enormous intellect, wisdom, kindness, and optimism. He is survived by four children and their spouses: Rob and Myla Strawderman, Bill and Jinny Strawderman, Heather and Jim Marx, Kay LiCausi and Matt McDermott; six grandchildren he adored; Will, Tommy, Evan, Emma, AJ and Lily; and a sister-in-law Nancy Strawderman.

In tribute to Bill’s memory, the Rutgers flag in front of the Old Queens Building in New Brunswick will be lowered to half-staff on February 3 and 4, 2025. A memorial celebratory research conference with colleagues, students and family members will be held in Bill’s honor at Rutgers University in the Spring of 2025. The Department of Statistics at Rutgers University, working with Bill’s family, will establish a named graduate fellowship in honor of Bill’s devotion to mentoring students. To contribute, please visit https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/strawderman/23763.html. To send your donation by check, please write it to Rutgers University Foundation (allocation Strawderman Fellowship #23763) and mail to Rutgers University Foundation, P.O. Box 193, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0193. Please reach out to Rong Chen at rongchen@stat.rutgers.edu or Michal Tyra at michal.tyra@rutgersfoundation.org for any questions.

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Written respectfully by Ed George, Martin Wells, and Bill’s colleagues at the Rutgers Department of Statistics.