Alexander M. Mood


Alexander McFarlane Mood was an American statistician and operations researcher, known for his work in statistical theory and education, and for his leadership roles in professional societies.

Early life and education

Mood was born and grew up in Amarillo, Texas. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Texas at Austin, where he learned mathematics from Robert Lee Moore. After teaching applied mathematics for a couple of years at University of Texas at Austin, and after a year of graduate studies at Brown University, he joined the mathematics department at Princeton University where he earned his Ph.D. in statistics, under the tutelage of Samuel S. Wilks.

Career

During World War II, Mood worked for the Office of Price Administration at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and for the Applied Mathematics Panel of the National Defense Research Council.
After the war, Mood moved to Ames, Iowa to join what was then the Iowa State University Statistics Laboratory that had been founded by George W. Snedecor in 1933. In 1947, Mood became one of the first faculty members of the Department of Statistics. It was while he was at Iowa State University that he wrote his classic textbook, Introduction to the Theory of Statistics. He was elected as a fellow of the American Statistical Association while at Iowa State University.
In 1950, Mood joined the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. He worked in the mathematics department under John Williams, who was an advocate for the use of operations research to address a number of real-world problems. After five years at RAND, Mood founded General Analysis Corporation, that provided research services to government agencies, including the United States Army Signal Corps, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps and the National Security Agency. GAC grew to include 17 full- and part-time statisticians and was eventually sold to CEIR, Inc.
In 1965, Mood was hired by the United States Office of Education as Assistant Commissioner. There, he founded National Center for Educational Statistics, where he directed a large survey of schools and colleges to assess the effectiveness of grants issued to schools in areas of high percentage of students from low-income families under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. That survey resulted in the controversial Coleman report.
In 1967, Mood returned to academia, joining University of California, Irvine as professor of management. His research there concerned efficiency of management methods in higher education. He remained at UC Irvine until his retirement in 1975.
Mood served as president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the Operations Research Society of America. In 1979, he was recognized with the Wilks Memorial Award of the American Statistical Association ''... for his many significant contributions to the theory of statistics, an outstanding textbook on the subject, his extensive applications to operations and systems analysis, and unique statistical assessments of education and public policy research.''

Personal life

Mood was twice married. His first wife was Harriett Harper to whom he was married for over 60 years and with whom he had three children. His second wife was Marion Elsa Vester.
Mood died on April 26, 2009 in Orange County, California when he was 95 years old.

Books

Education

  • Policy

  • Statistics

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