Martin Bradbury WILK, 1922-2013

If there could ever be an act carried out with the complete unanimity of the Society, it would surely be the naming of Martin Wilk as an Honorary Member. Martin's efforts have affected the lives of a great many Canadians, be they academic, business, government, industrial, or scientific statisticians, or be they honourable citizens.
 
Martin Wilk was born 18 December 1922 in Montreal. He graduated from Strathcona Academy, Outremont, in 1940. He received a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from McGill University in 1945. From 1945-1950 he was Research Chemical Engineer at the Atomic Energy Project of the N.R.C.. He next did graduate statistics at Iowa State University, obtaining an M.S. in 1953, followed by a doctorate in 1955. His Ph.D. thesis was titled “Linear Models and Randomized Experiments” and was supervised by Oscar Kempthorne.
 
Martin moved in 1955 to New Jersey, where he was Research Associate and Assistant Director of the Statistical Techniques Research Group at Princeton University. In 1956 he began his fourteen-year career at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey. At Bell Labs he was, in turn: Member of Technical Staff; Head, Statistics and Data Analysis Research Department; Head, Statistical Models and Methods Research Department; and Statistical Director, Management Sciences Research. Meanwhile, between 1959 and 1963, he was Professor of Statistics and Director of Research in Statistics at Rutgers University.
 
In 1970 Martin moved into the higher management levels of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, commuting to New York City and occupying a succession of positions culminating as Assistant Vice President- Director of Corporate Planning.
 
While living in New Jersey, Martin participated in numerous statistical professional society activities, ranging from his Vice Presidency and then Presidency of the local chapter of the American Statistical Association in 1955-56 to his Vice Presidency of the ASA in 1980-82. He is a five-time Fellow: of the ASA, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the Royal Statistical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the New York Academy of Sciences, and he is an elected Member of the International Statistical Institute.
 
Throughout the years, Martin retained his Canadian citizenship and ties. To our Society's and country`s great fortune, Martin was prevailed upon in 1980 to return to Canada as Chief Statistician.
 
He was the first mathematical statistician to occupy the post (and was followed by the second!). Martin's contributions and accomplishments at Statistics Canada were notable, including: negotiating a reinstatement of a Cabinet-cancelled 1986 Census, a shift towards analytic and interpretive studies, creation of a network of advisory committees, and a resurgent international standing for the institution. He resigned as Chief Statistician in January of 1986.
 
Since “retirement” Martin has maintained a close involvement with Statistics Canada, continued to chair the National Task Force on Tourism Data, become a member of the Council of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and been President of our Society.

Throughout his career, Martin has: edited, refereed, advised, organized, presided, counselled, chaired, lectured, granted, nominated, belonged, been elected, and been rewarded. If anyone has been a complete statistician it is Martin Wilk.
 
In his scientific career it may be stated that Martin Wilk, as well as writing a succession of influential papers, achieved several scientific breakthroughs, notably the work with Ram Gnanadesikan on probability plotting for multivariate data (papers 11, 26, 30, 31) and with Sam Shapiro on the W statistic, which tests for normality by regression on order statistics (papers 21, 27, 28, 29, 34). The first W statistic paper (in 1965) was designated as a Citation Classic by Current Contents, having been cited more than 320 times by 1984, and the 1972 W statistic paper received the Jack Youden Prize “for an exceptional expository paper in Technometrics for the year 1972”. A list of Martin's major publications is appended.
 
Martin is known particularly for his wit, for the forcefulness of his extemporaneous argument, for his piercing questioning, for his ability to recognize the central elements of a problem, for his lateral thinking, and for his leadership. His coined terms “blue collar statistician” and “white collar statistician” are likely to be long made use of. In conversation, he routinely comes out with things like:
 
“Significance tests are things to do while one is trying to think of something sensible to do.”
 
“The hallmark of good science is that it uses models and ‘theory' but never believes them.”
 
“Don't make assumptions about unmeasureable random variables.”
 
“Contemplation of raw observations with an empty mind, even when it is possible, is often hardly more beneficial than not studying them at all.”
 
“Models must be used but must never be believed.”
 
“Insightfulness is generally more important than objectivity.”
 
“In data analysis, as in experimentation, discovery is more important than confirmation.”
 
“…is somewhere between meaningless and misleading.”
 
“Most new phenomena turn out to be errors.”
 
“Attacking factor analysis is like criticizing a pile of cow dropping for the shape it is in.”
 
Martin Wilk has been the complete Canadian statistician. We have written this article with respect and affection.
 
David R. Brillinger, Professor of Statistics
University of California, Berkeley, California
 
Jane F. Gentleman , Senior Research Statistician
Social & Economic Studies Division, Statistics Canada