The Distinguished Service Award is awarded to a person who has made substantial contributions to the running or welfare of SSC over a period of several years. A recipient of the Distinguished Service Award must be a member of the SSC.
Dr David F. Bray is the Director of the Canadian Centre for Health Information, formerly Health Division, at Statistics Canada. Dr Bray joined Statistics Canada as Director of Health Division in 1985. He brought 20 years of varied experience in National Health and Welfare in a number of capacities including that as Director of Planning and Evaluation in the Health Protection Branch. Prior to 1965 Dr Bray taught in the Department of Genetics at McGill University and in the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of British Columbia.
A native of Ontario, Dr Bray recei"ved his first degree, a B.S.A., in 1955 from the University of Toronto at Guelph, his M.Sc. in 1957 and Ph.D. in 1960 both in Population Genetics from Purdue University, and a Master's in Public Administration in 1976 from Harvard University. He is the author of numerous papers in quantitative biology and has led major projects such as the statistical design of the Nutrition Canada Survey, and the development of the National Drug Identification Code for Canada.
The Statistical Society of Canada and its predecessors, the Statistical Science Association of Canada and the Canadian Statistical Society, are to indebted Dr Bray for his many fundamental contributions.
Dr Bray was the President of the Statistical Science Association of Canada in 1976 and 1977. He was one of the enlightened ones who played an active role in bringing together the Statistical Science Association of Canada and the Canadian Statistical Society to form one Canadian statistical society, the Statistical Society of Canada. As its first President in 1978, he laid the foundation for the subsequent development and growth of the Society.
Dr Bray has continued as an active participant in Society affairs. Since 1984 he has been the Managing Editor of The Canadian Journal of Statistics and a Member of the By-Laws, Publications, Finance and Nominating Committees.
He will be retiring from the Public Service of Canada during the summer of 1991 and taking up residence in Kingston, Ontario.
"To Dr David F. Bray, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the Statistical Society of Canada and its two predecessors, as one of the leaders and visionaries who brought together the Statistical Science Association of Canada and the Canadian Statistical Society to form the Statistical Society of Canada, as the first President of the Statistical Society of Canada and as an active and continuing participant in the affairs of the Society, particularly as Managing Editor of The Canadian Journal of Statistics."