Obituaries

Jack was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico to Jackson C. Stromberg Sr. and Jeanette Stromberg. The combination of their father's work ethic and mother's love of learning were instilled in Jack and his siblings at an early age. In high school, Jack became a ribbon-winning calf-roper, captain of his football team, long-jump record holder, and class valedictorian. After what he remembered as his "idyllic" childhood, Jack left New Mexico to attend Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

At Dartmouth, Jack majored in philosophy, competed on the track team, skied alongside the Dartmouth Ski Team, and proudly belonged to Casque and Gauntlet, a senior society devoted to the "fellowship of men." He was active in the rich intellectual life at Dartmouth and made many lifelong friends at his beloved "college on the hill."

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth, Jack was selected to become a Rhodes Scholar. He studied philosophy at the University of Oxford in England where he met his soon-to-be-wife, Elizabeth Hoem. After Oxford and their wedding in Norway, Jack and Elizabeth moved to the U.S. where Jack attended Stanford Law School, eventually becoming an editor of the Stanford Law Review. After Jack graduated from Stanford in 1963, he became a corporate lawyer at Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges in San Francisco. He, Elizabeth, and their new baby daughter moved to Mill Valley where they put down roots and would remain for the rest of their lives.

Jack soon rose to become a partner at Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges, where he specialized in corporate and securities law. He was recruited by Bechtel Enterprises, Inc. to become their Assistant General Counsel, where his career swiftly progressed. He eventually retired as Managing Director and Executive Vice President. Jack also served on the Board of Trustees of the World Affairs Council of Northern California, and was a member of the San Francisco Committee on Foreign Relations, the Board of Directors of the British American Chamber of Commerce, the Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and the Board of Directors of J.P. Morgan Securities Asia, Ltd.

Beyond his illustrious career, Jack was also an adventurer. He traveled to nearly every continent and was an avid skier; he only stopped skiing in his late '70s on his doctor's advice. Jack also loved golf. He loved the camaraderie and sportsmanship that golf brought into his life, especially after retirement from Bechtel. Jack Stromberg will be remembered for his devotion to family and friends, consistent enthusiasm and optimism in life, and insatiable curiosity, all anchored in a value system that guided his everyday actions. He was a friend to many, a role model to all, and an example of a life well-lived.

Read full obituary here.

We were saddened to hear that David Vere-Jones passed away on 31 October 2024 aged 88 years. The world of statistics, and the New Zealand mathematical and statistical communities, in particular, have lost a great and influential leader. In the words of a Maori saying, a mighty totara has fallen in the forest of Tane.

Born in London in 1936, David attended Cheadle Hulme School, near Manchester, until the age of 12 when his family emigrated to Wellington, New Zealand. It was here that he developed his interest in mathematics, which then formed the centre of his undergraduate programme at the VUW.

Following the completion of his MSc in 1958, David won a Rhodes Scholarship to take up postgraduate study in probability theory with David Kendall at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College). His thesis topic on the geometric ergodicity of denumerable Markov chains led to the first of his significant publications (now well in excess of 150). Life at Oxford was stressful and demanding, and there were times when acting and the theatre (a consuming interest begun in his undergraduate years) became a strong contender for a preferred career. Such feelings were exacerbated by the loneliness and challenge of being a postgraduate mathematician, coupled perhaps with being such a long way from home.

In 1961, after completing his DPhil, David was accepted into a 1-year postdoctoral exchange programme with the Soviet Union. He worked on queueing theory at Moscow University with Boris Gnedenko, whose friendship, collegiality, and warm Russian hospitality made an indelible impression on David. In 1962, David returned to New Zealand and the DSIR Applied Mathematics Laboratory. At the outset, he was involved in a descriptive study of New Zealand earthquakes. This was the beginning of his lifelong interest in statistical seismology with his first paper on the subject published in 1964.

David’s breadth of scholarship and achievement in the service of mathematics and statistics was remarkable. He made fundamental contributions to the theory of Markov and point processes, was a founding father of statistical seismology, and a founder of the International Association for Statistical Education. He helped set up the New Zealand Mathematical Society and was a president of the New Zealand Statistical Association. He had a profound influence on the New Zealand secondary school mathematics and statistics syllabus with innovations that were emulated by other countries. David was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1982, awarded the Henri Willem Methorst Medal from the International Statistical Institute (ISI) in 1995, and was awarded the Rutherford Medal, New Zealand’s highest scientific honour, in 1999.

David retired from VUW in 2000 as professor emeritus. He remained an active researcher, and in 2014, the Royal Society of New Zealand awarded David the prestigious Jones Medal in recognition of his lifetime achievements in statistics. Many individuals, groups and organizations have benefited enormously from David’s wise guidance and inspirational leadership. They have frequently turned to him for advice and help—none found him wanting. The hallmarks of David Vere-Jones include his vision, infectious energy and enthusiasm, and, above all, his warmth and compassion for others of all persuasions and all walks of life. He will be missed by many all around the world, but particularly in New Zealand where the statistical and mathematical communities are immeasurably richer for his prodigious contributions and the poorer for his departure.

Read full obituary here.

Patrick was born in Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia (now Kabwe in Zambia), and raised in Borrowdale outside of Salisbury (now Harare), then capital of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He was educated at St George's College before being named a 1965 Rhodes Scholar, where he obtained his MBChB and DM.

During Patrick’s clinical training and early work as a physician, he spent time at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London, Wessex Cardiac and Thoracic Center in Southampton, and the National Heart Hospital in London. He moved to the United States in 1980 as a British-American Fellow of the American College of Cardiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA. Patrick became an Assistant Professor of Medicine (cardiology) at the University of Michigan from 1982 to 1986. He then moved to Indianapolis, IN, where he became an Associate Professor of Cardiology in 1986 and a Professor of Medicine in 1994, and he practiced as an interventional cardiologist through the Indiana University and Methodist health systems in Indianapolis until 2019. He was a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and a member of the Royal College of Physicians.

Patrick also found lifelong prowess and success in sport. As a child in Rhodesia, then during university in the UK, he took part in the British traditions of rugby and cricket. While in university, he took up squash, rising quickly to the university "Squirrels" team, and elected to membership of the Vincent's sports club at Oxford. In middle age, he took up fitness anew; he ran in the Boston Marathon seven times and completed over 50 full and half Ironman triathlon competitions, including 10 Ironman World Championships and 10 “Half Ironman” World Championships.

He relished adventures with his children, hiking and climbing mountains, from Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, to backpacking summits in Ecuador, Hawaii, New Zealand, and Rwanda. He continued to relish skiing double-black diamonds, playing pickleball, and rounds of golf into his last year of life and was committed to demonstrating that “life is full” to the end.

Read a full obituary here.