Simon A. GOLDBERG, 1914-1985

Simon Goldberg has a BA and an MA from McGill University and a second MA and a PhD from Harvard University. After military service in the Royal Canadian Air Force, from 1942 to 1945, he joined Statistics Canada, where he served successively as National Income Statistician, Director of the Research and Development Division, Assistant Chief Statistician of Canada, and Senior Assistant Chief Statistician of Canada.

He began his brilliant career of 27 years in Statistics Canada as a prominent member of a small group that constructed Canada’s National Accounts. In 1948, Statistics Canada published the first set of sector accounts, which Dr. Goldberg authored, and which has required little change over the years. From 1949 to 1954, as Director of the Research and Development Division, he put in motion an amazing burst of creativity in a variety of projects fundamental to the structure of the statistical system and its integration. He personally designed and coauthored Canada’s first comprehensive publication of the National Accounts, which has become a model for subsequent work in this field. Under his leadership, Canada became the second country in the world to publish quarterly national accounts. He initiated work on input-output tables which, aside from their analytical uses, he perceived as tools for confronting, reconciling, and integrating data and for identifying weaknesses in the system of economic statistics. During this period, he also gave guidance and encouragement for the development of statistics on income size distributions and a number of other major topics.

With widened horizons following his appointment as Assistant Chief Statistician in 1954, he initiated, supported, inspired, and nursed to fruition a number of developments which transformed Statistics Canada and projected it to become one of the world’s leading statistical agencies. Continuing his contributions to the National Accounts, he was instrumental in further developing income statistics and saw to fruition work that he had begun earlier on the statistics of input-output, real output, productivity, capital stock, and financial flows. He oversaw the development of central classification systems with far-reaching consequences for coordination, econometric analysis, demographic and manpower analyses, and regional statistics. He became a strong advocate of interdisciplinary teams several years prior to the idea becoming an accepted tool for management in the era of automation. He was among the first to recognize the potential impact of the computer and, with characteristic insight and dedication, set out to develop Statistics Canada’s capacity in this field.

He never lost sight of the changing needs of users and was the driving force behind major user-oriented activities. He recognized the increasing importance of social statistics. He anticipated the need for a comprehensive statistical design encompassing social and demographic statistics and indicators as well as economic statistics, some years before work in this sphere began at the international level.

During a two-year “blitz” on timeliness he succeeded in achieving major improvements in the timeliness of statistics on a broad front. The timeliness drive was the beginning of systematic production scheduling in Statistics Canada. He has an uncanny ability to look ahead and to sort out what is practical from what is impossible. He was instrumental in establishing in Statistics Canada an effective planning function.

Dr. Goldberg’s achievements in Statistics Canada and his extensive international activities attracted worldwide attention. It was therefore no surprise when, in 1972, he was appointed to the top post in world statistics, as Director of the Statistical Office of the United Nations, a position he held till 1979. During this period, he strengthened substantially the professional capability of the Office, leading it to heightened achievements in international statistics and statistical standards. He created an atmosphere of unprecedented mutual trust and collaboration among the manifold international agencies, resulting in enhanced harmonization and effectiveness in world statistical activities. He reoriented the U.N. statistical programs to be more in tune with the needs of member states, especially those of the developing world. He was instrumental in strengthening technical cooperation in statistics rendering it more relevant to the needs of the developing countries. He conceived and became the driving force in the implementation of the worldwide United Nations National Household Survey Capability Programme, which is dedicated to helping developing countries to strengthen their capabilities for taking household surveys on a continuing basis. In 1979 he became Coordinator of this program. He retired in 1983 but continues to pursue his interests as a consultant.

In Statistics Canada and the United Nations, Dr. Goldberg was singularly able to attract talented people and to mobilize them for developmental work as well as production efforts. His dedication to achieving progress and efficiency has been coupled with a deep humanity which, together with his cheerful, genial, and free-hearted manner, has made him not only highly respected but also very much liked by statisticians all over the world.

Dr. Goldberg is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and the Inter-American Statistical Institute. He is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Association of Survey Statisticians, the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, a former Chairman of its Council, and a former President of the Ottawa Chapter of The Canadian Political Science Association.

Ivan P. Fellegi, 1984