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3. The Waiting Years

During most of the Great Depression, the statistics program at Oklahoma State university remained static. The courses begun in the late 1920’s were offered but neither course offerings nor staff were expanded. In the meantime statistics was becoming firmly established elsewhere.

At University College, London, Karl Pearson’s Department of Statistics had become world famous. Students from many countries went there to study. In the 1930’s Jerzy and E. S. Pearson collaborated in laying important foundations for theoretical statistics (See E. S. Pearson{2}). At Rothamsted Agricultural Experiment Station, From 1919 to 1933 R. A. Fisher developed many of the statistical methods and much of the theory still used today. He continued this work at university College from 1933 to 1947. In the United States there were several statistical centers; one of the foremost at Iowa State College. In 1931 Snedecor graduated his first M.S. student, Gertrude Cox, and in the same year invited R. A. Fisher to visit Iowa State University.

In 1934 Snedecor published a little book called Calculation and Interpretation of the Analysis of Variance and Covariance. This was followed in 1937 by the first edition of his now classic Statistical Methods.
In 1933 Fisher was appointed to the Galton chair to head the new Department of Eugenics at University College and in 1935 he published his The Design of Experiments.

Statistics had come of age and Oklahoma State University was to about to end a period of waiting.

Partially because of Snedecor’s work at Iowa State University, the Agricultural Station was greatly interested in statistical methods and sought help from a young mathematics instructor, Carl Ernest Marshall. Because of the interest of Dr. Lippert Ellis, Assistant Dean of Agriculture in 1936, Marshall took a sabbatical leave to study statistics at the University of Illinois in 1937-1938. Upon his return he was assigned to teach a new course, 403 Statistical Methods, first listed in the catalog in 1938-1939. The interested reader will quickly note that the course is still offered as 4013 Statistical Methods I. Marshall held both the B.A. degree and the M.S. degree from Oklahoma State University and would later complete his Ph.D. degree from Iowa State University.

The mathematics Department had also introduced a new course in 1937-1938: 313 Mathematics of Statistics. It is interesting to note that the first three courses were (1) Theory of Least Squares, (2) Mathematics of Statistics, and (30 Statistical methods. Most of the courses in the present curriculum of the Statistics Department are extensions of these original three courses.

Across the campus in 1939-1940, the School of Commerce offered through the Department of Economics a new course called 303 Statistics. The new course was taught by Mr. Blair, who also continued to teach the Business Administration course, 333 Business Statistics.

The Statistical Laboratory, headed by Carl Marshall was created primarily because of statistical problems arising from the Agricultural Experiment Station. The work was interrupted during 1940-1942 because of Carl Marshall’s graduate study at Iowa State University and was more or less suspended from 1942 to 1946 while he was in military service.

Last update: 08/18/2002