Photograph of John Wilder Tukey

Photograph of John Wilder Tukey, n.d.

One of the most influential statisticians of the 20th century, John Wilder Tukey (19152000), played a key role in both the development and study of statistics. A prolific writer, his collected papers amount to eight volumes of work. Beyond his scientific work, his collection reveals two hobbies: reading pulp mysteries and science fiction, and square dancing. The above carefully posed picture shows his lighter side: sampled data comes in one ear and goes out the other, regularized.