In 1946, Public Law 588 of the 79th Congress established the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Its mission was to plan, foster and encourage scientific research in support of Naval problems. The establishment of ONR predates the National Science Foundation and initiated the refocusing of scientific infrastructure in the United States following World War II. At the time, ONR was the only source for federal support of basic research in the United States. Dorothy Gilford was one of the first Heads of the Probability and Statistics program at the Office of Naval Research (1955 to 1962), and she went on to serve as Director of the Mathematical Sciences Division (1962 to 1968). During her time at ONR, Dorothy influenced many areas of statistics and mathematics and was ahead of her time in promoting interdisciplinary projects. Dorothy continued her career at the National Center for Education Statistics (1969 to 1974). She was active in starting international comparisons of education outcomes in different countries, which has influenced educational policy in the United States. Dorothy went on to serve in many capacities at the National Academy of Sciences, including Director of Human Resources Studies (1975 to 1978), Senior Statistician on the Committee on National Statistics (1978 to 1988) and Director of the Board on International Comparative Studies in Education (1988 to 1994). The following is a conversation we had with Dorothy Gilford in March of 2004. We found her to be an interesting person and a remarkable statistician. We hope you agree.
This is an electronic reprint of the original article published by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in Statistical Science, 2007, Vol. 22, No. 2, 291-300. This reprint differs from the original in pagination and typographic detail.
Ed: This is Edward Wegman and I am here with Wendy Martinez in the home of Dorothy Gilford. Dorothy, why don’t you tell us about your early history, where you grew up and what sort of background your family had? Dorothy: I was born in 1919. I just celebrated my 85th birthday. I was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, but I didn’t live there very long. My father worked for Kelly-Springfield Tire Corporation. He was moved to Lincoln, Nebraska when I was 2. We moved to Los Angeles when I was 5. When I was 8, my father was sent to Seattle, where he was the branch manager for the region. I really grew up in Seattle, where I went to grade school and high school. Then I went to the University of Washington to major in mathematics. Incidentally, I majored in mathematics because I asked the guidance counselor for some advice when I left high school. She said it was very rare for a woman to have good grades in mathematics, and I should major in mathematics. That really wasn’t the best advice, considering the career opportunities at that time.
Wendy: She must have felt that you would have gotten good grades at the university.
Dorothy: Yes, but if you looked a little beyond the university, the career opportunities were very, very limited at that time.
Wendy: What year was that? Dorothy: 1935. Ed: Was that high school or college? Dorothy: High school. I did a year of “post-graduate high school” because I was only 15 when I graduated. I took mathematics at the University of Washington, and I minored in botany. I liked botany very much. I took all of the mathematics courses. In my senior year, the only woman faculty member in the department, Mary Haller, was the professor that all the engineering students liked. As a matter of fact, the engineering department sent them to her, because she was the best teacher. She never made full professor because she didn’t publish. She advised me that mathematics was not a good career for women, and she urged me to do something else, but I decided I would go ahead and do some graduate work in mathematics. I was lucky in my first year of graduate work. Z. W. Birnbaum 1 was on the faculty. I took his course in what was actuarial mathematics, but then he got into statistics. I took a course in statistics and probability from him, and I really liked it. I liked it very, very much. So, I decided I would shift a little bit out of pure mathematics into statistics.
Ed: So, as an undergraduate, what sort of mathematics were you focused on? Dorothy: Theoretical mathematics.
Ed: Such as abstract algebra and topology? Dorothy: No, not topology-Boolean algebra, real analysis, differential equations.
Wendy: Did you find that your parents were supportive of your college endeavors? Dorothy: My father died when I was only 8. My mother was very supportive of my education. She did everything she could to see that I had a good education, including moving. When I got to junior high, we moved to an apartment building across the street from John Marshall Junior High School. When I went to the university, we moved to the university district. She did everything she could to make it easy for me. Actually, we did not have very much money. I worked in the university library half time all through my university years. That was a good education, too.
Wendy: So often, I think that women had trouble going to college or doing graduate work because the families didn’t support them. It sounds like you did not have those problems. Dorothy: No, not at that point. When I got my Master’s degree, I decided I wanted to go on for a Ph.D. I applied for fellowships at eight schools. It was during the war, and there weren’t many men around. So, I was awarded a fellowship at each of the eight institutions. I had no competition! I chose to go to Bryn Mawr. I always wanted to go there, so 1 Z. W. Birnbaum (1903Birnbaum ( -2000) ) was born in Austria-Hungary and studied mathematics and actuarial science. He came to New York in the late 1930s, where Harold Hotelling told him about a job at the University of Washington. This led to a distinguished career of over 60 years in the Seattle area. I went there for graduate school. I did some work with Hilda Geiringer 2 on some genetics problems that could have gone on to be a dissertation. But, I went to New York for a meeting of the IMS (Institute of Mathematical Statistics) where I met Harold Hotelling. 3 He offered me a fellowship at Columbia. I thought about it, and I decided I would go to Columbia. I spent one year there. I found it a very cold place.
Wendy: Wasn’t there a big statistics group at Columbia? Dorothy: Yes, it was during and after World War II. I was at Columbia during the war, 1942-1943. Abraham Wald worked there. There was a Statistical Resea
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