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GERTRUDE MARY COX
January 13, l900~ctober 17, 1978
BY RICHARD L. ANDERSON
THIS IS A FINAL TRIBUTE to a fellow statistician, fel-
low graduate student, employer, and above all—best
friend and well-wisher, the confidante and constant compan-
ion of my wife and children. Gertrude Mary Cox had that
rare combination of administrative strength and love for her
fellow man we so desperately need at the present time. A
gracious, patient, tenacious visionary, she brought out the
best in people. As a pioneer in the development of statistics
she was a servant to science who never lost her touch with
people. ~
EARLY YEARS
Gertrude Cox was born on a farm near Dayton, Iowa,
where she spent several years "roaming in the woods by the
river," as she put it, "and wandering over the hills." The fam-
ily then moved to the small town of Perry, Iowa, where
Gertrude attended public school. A lover of competitive
sports, she played on the high school basketball team. (Iowa
was the center of girls' basketball in those clays.)
, . _ ~
~ Much of what is printed here is excerpted from a 1979 obituary I prepared with
Robert Monroe and Larry Nelson of North Carolina State University, "Gertrude
Cox A Modern Pioneer in Statistics," Biometrics 35(1979):3-7. I have also included
remarks from a letter Gertrude Cox wrote to me on October 10, 1975.
117
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
The Coxes were a close-knit, midwestern family with four
chilclren—two boys and two girls. Gertrude was especially
close to her mother, Emma, and later wrote of her: "I learner!
from my mother the value and joy of doing for other people.
She nursed the sick for miles around and raised us to be
active church workers."
During those early years Gertrude also learned to like
making bread perhaps because she was allowed to sell one
pan of biscuits. Her excellent cinnamon rolls were famous.
She always served them to us whenever we visited, and, when
we left, provided one package for our son, Bill, and another
for the rest of us. Gertrude lover! children and always joined
us on Christmas morning to see our two youngsters open
their gifts.
Gertrude's early ambition was to help others. She took a
two-year course in social science, then spent another two
years as a housemother for sixteen small orphan boys in
Montana. As preparation for becoming the superintendent
of the orphanage, she decided to enroll at Iowa State College.
Majoring in mathematics because it was easy for her, she
elected courses in psychology, sociology, and crafts—courses
useful to her in her chosen career. In 1929 she received her
B.S degree.
To help pay her college expenses Gertrude did comput-
ing, George Snedecor—her calculus professor having
asked her to work with the comptometers in his computing
laboratory. Speculating (forty-six years later) as to why he had
chosen her for this work, she told the Raleigh News and Ob-
server in May 1975, that he hac! probably hoped that she, the
only woman in the class, would have more patience for detail
work than the men.
Perhaps because of this computing experience, Gertrude
became interested in statistics. But the Mathematics Depart-
ment at that time would not aware! an assistantship to a
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GERTRUDE MARY COX
119
woman, and she financed her graduate work with assistant-
ships in psychology and art. In 1931, she received the first
Master's degree ever given by Iowa State in statistics but was
turned down for a job teaching high schc~o} mathematics be-
cause she clid not have the requirec! courses in education. She
decided to continue her graduate career.
Because of her love of people and her desire to learn what
"made them tick," Gertrude chose psychology as her research
area. With a graduate assistantship at the University of Cali-
fornia, Berkeley, she began work on a doctorate in psycho-
logical statistics. Unfortunately for the fielc! of psychology,
she stayed only two years. In 1933, Iowa State established its
Statistical Laboratory under the direction of George
Snedecor, Gertrucle's former mentor, ant! he persuaded her
to return home to help him. Back in Iowa, she continued her
interest in psychology and worked with several members of
the Psychology Department—including its chairman (later,
dean of the School of Industrial Science), Harold Gaskill-
on the evaluation of aptitude tests, test scoring procedures,
and the analysis of psychological data.
At the same time she was put in charge of establishing a
Computing Laboratory and consulted! in ant! taught experi-
mental designs. In 1934 she began to teach "Design of Ex-
periments" a course that would become renownec! to fol-
low Sneclecor's "Statistical Methods." Most graduate students
in agriculture were required to take this sequence, a require-
ment that was later extended to a number of other disciplines
at Iowa State and was my own introduction to experimental
statistics. Both the Snedecor and Cox courses were originally
taught from mimeographed materials. In 1937, Snedecor's
material came out in book form, but Gertrude only published
her design material in 1950, when it came out as a colIabo-
rative effort with W. G. Cochran (1950,7~.
Gertrucle's course was built around a multitude of specific
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
examples (many of which ~ still keep in my files) in a variety
of areas of experimentation. Members of her computing staff
analyzed all of the data, which were then completely checked
by Gertrude and the hundreds of graduate students in her
course. Despite the fact that these experiments were con-
ducted four or five decades ago, they could still furnish the
basis for a sold course on the design of experiments, espe-
cially in biology ant! agriculture.
In her later "Advanced Experimental Design," Gertrude
concentrated on her three basic principles for setting up an
experiment:
(1) Experiment objectives should be set forth clearly at the outset, the
experimenter having answered the following questions regarding his or
her experiment: Is it a preliminary experiment to determine the course of
future research or is it intended to furnish answers to immediate ques-
tions? Are the results to be put to immediate practical use or are they
intended to help clarify theoretical questions? Does the researcher wish to
obtain estimates or to test for significance? Over what range of experi-
mental conditions do the results extend?
(2) The experimenter should describe the experiment in detail, clearly
defining proposed treatments, size, and materials: Is a control treatment
necessary for comparison with past results? Will the funds available sup-
port an experiment of sufficient size to yield useful results? Are the ma-
terials necessary for the experiment available?
(3) The experimenter should draw up an outline analyzing the data
before starting the experiment.
Both as a teacher and a consultant, Gertrude particularly
emphasized randomization, replication, and experimental
controls as procedures essential to experimental design:
"Randomization is somewhat analogous to insurance in that it is a precau-
tion against disturbances that may or may not occur and that may or may
not be serious if they do occur. It is generally advisable to take the trouble
to randomize even when it is not expected that there will be any serious
bias from failure to randomize. The experimenter is thus protected against
unusual events that upset his expectations. Of course in experiments
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GERTRUDE MARY COX
121
where a great number of physical operations are involved, the application
of randomization to every operation becomes time-consuming, and the
experimenter may use his judgment in omitting randomization where
there is real knowledge that the results will not be vitiated. It should be
realized, however, that failure to randomize at any stage may introduce
bias unless either the variation introduced in that stage is negligible or the
experiment effectively randomizes itself." (1950,7, p.8)
~ . . . ~ . .. .. . ~ .
units
AS she pointed out, replication not only Increases the ac-
curacy of treatment comparison, it also enables the experi-
menter to obtain a valid estimate of the magnitude of exper-
imental error. She also offered the following ways to increase
accuracy by improving the control of experimental tech-
niques:
(1) Select the best experimental design for the proposed experiment;
(2) Ascertain the optimal size and shape of the experimental unit;
(3) Use uniform methods for applying treatments to experimental
(4) In order that every treatment operate under conditions as nearly
the same as possible, exercise control over external influences;
(5) Devise unbiased methods for increasing treatment effects;
(6) Take additional measurements (covariates) often to help explain
final results;
(7) Provide checks to avoid gross errors in recording and analyzing
data.
Though Gertrude was enrolled in a Ph.D. program in
mathematics at Iowa State, her teaching and consulting du-
ties cliff not leave her enough time to write a dissertation. An
"assistant" from 1933, she was appointed research assistant
professor in 1939, though her design course was listed under
Professor Snedecor's name.
In 1940 Snedecor was asked to recommend candidates to
head the new Department of Experimental Statistics in the
School of Agriculture at North Carolina State College. "Why
didn't you put my name on the list?" Gertrude asked when
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
he showed her his all-male list of candidates, and her name
was aclded to the accompanying letter in the following post-
script: "If you would consider a woman for this position, ~
wouIc! recommend Gertrude Cox of my staff." This terse note
was to have far-reaching consequences for statistics, for not
only was Gertrude considered, she was selected. Her resig-
nation led to a heart-rending session with Dean Gaskill, she
later told me, in which he tried to convince her that she was
being disloyal to her native state anc! to Iowa State College,
and that a woman would never be accepted as a department
head in a southern state.
SOUTHERN VENTURE
Gertrude Cox became the head of North Carolina State's
Department of Experimental Statistics on November I, 1940.
The Board of Trustees of the Consolidated University of
North Carolina authorizes! the establishment of the Depart-
ment and confirmed! Professor Cox as its head on January
22, 1941. She hac! strong support from the U.S. Bureau of
Agricultural Economics, which had been instrumental in es-
tablishing the Department, and, in particular, from the
Raleigh-based Division of Agricultural Statistics of its North
Carolina Research Office.
She encouraged researchers in the School of Agriculture
to attend her experimental design course and recruited ca-
pable applied statisticians to clevelop and teach basic statisti-
cal methods. She made these statisticians available to consult
with researchers on procedures for designing experiments
and analyzing data. Most faculty had been trainee! in one of
these disciplines and acquired some statistical training as a
minor area. To secure at least one faculty member for every
agricultural discipline, she had to start from scratch. "There
weren't any statisticians to hire when ~ first started," she later
wrote. "l haci to choose from other fields and train them."
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GERTRUDE MARY COX
123
By the time Gertrude left Ames, ~ had hac! enough of
Iowa's winters ant! told her ~ would like to join her group
whenever a mathematical statistician position became avail-
able. In 1942, ~ transferred from North Carolina State's
Mathematics Department to handle statistical consulting with
agricultural economists. Gertrude had decicled that it was
necessary to bolster the methods courses with courses in sta-
tistical theory; a graduate program was in the offing.
Another innovative feature of the Cox statistics program
was a series of one-week working conferences on specific top-
ics, such as agricultural economics and rural sociology, bio-
logical ant! nutritional problems, agronomic ant! horti-
cultural problems, plant sciences, animal sciences, quality
control, nutrition, industrial statistics, soil science, and plant
breeding. Gertrude later obtained outside funds to hoist two
summer conferences in the mountains of North Carolina,
which were attended by statisticians from throughout the
United States and abroad. In addition to experimental and
mathematical statistics, these conferences covered many re-
search areas involving statistics, including life testing, oper-
ations research, clinical trials, surveys, pasture and rotation
experiments, and genetics. Many were held cluring World
War Il. Gertrude, realizing the importance of quality control
methods to the war effort, inclucled engineering statisticians
on the faculty.
During this period Gertrude realized still another dream.
She had become a close friend of Frank Graham, the Uni-
versity's president, who had been instrumental in starting the
statistics program in 1940. In 1944, Dr. Graham helped her
get a grant from the General Education Board, founded by
John D. Rockefeller, to establish and direct an Institute of
Statistics to improve statistical competency in the South. This
grant enabled her to add six faculty members to her depart-
ment, including W. G. Cochran, who was to develop a grad-
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124
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Hate program. In 1945, the General Education Board made
an additional grant to establish a Consolidated University of
North Carolina Institute of Statistics, with a Department of
Mathematical Statistics at Chapel Hill, to concentrate on
graduate training and research in statistical theory. With
complementary graduate programs, the two departments
produced many outstanding applied and theoretical statisti-
cians.
Gertrude remained as heac! of the Experimental Statistics
Department in Raleigh until 1949, when she decided to ad-
minister the Institute almost full-time, with the exception of
teaching her course in experimental design. In the School of
Public Health at Chapel Hill, she helped establish the Biosta-
tistics Department, the Social Science Statistical Laboratory
in the Institute for Research in Social Science, and the Psy-
chometric Laboratory in the Department of Psychology.
These two laboratories were a culmination of Gertrude's life-
long interest in the use of statistics to study human relation-
ships.
During this time, North Carolina State statisticians began
visiting a number of experimental stations to assist research
programs in the use of statistical methods. Cox's Institute
coordinated a number of short courses for researchers in
industry and the physical sciences. One of her most impor-
tant accomplishments was her successful effort, along with
Boyd Harshbarger of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, to estab-
lish the Southern Regional Education Board's Committee on
Statistics to develop cooperative programs for statistics teach-
ing, research, and consulting in the South.
This Committee contributed tremendously to sound sta-
tistical programs throughout the South and fostered the
spirit of cooperation that Gertrude envisaged. From 1954 to
1973 it sponsored! a continuing series of six-week summer
sessions and is now conducting an annual one-week Summer
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GERTRUDE MARY COX
125
Research Conference modeled on the original Gordon con-
ferences.2
Gertrucle's first contact with statistics came in the com-
puting laboratory, and she remained a strong advocate of the
integral connection between statistical analysis and an up-to-
date computing facility. At Iowa State she hac! developer! an
excellent computing laboratory. Early in 1941 she persuacled
Robert Monroe, one of her chief associates there, to come to
Raleigh to develop a similar facility. ~ remember those old
Hollerith machines at Ames and Raleigh and the tremen-
dous leap forward when IBM entered the electronic age.
Gertrude Cox, naturally, had one of the first IBM 650s on a
college campus, and North Carolina State subsequently de-
signed for the 650 the best statistical software. From then on,
Gertrude made certain that the Institute was in the forefront
when it came to statistical software, and Raleigh statisticians
designed the initial SAS programs.
No account of Gertrude Cox's meteoric success at the Uni-
versity of North Carolina would be complete without men-
tioning her unique ability to secure outside financial support.
Though her Institute was originally funded by General Edu-
cation Boars! grants, Gertrude Cox persuaded the Rockefel-
ler Foundation to support a substantial program in statistical
genetics. She obtained funcis from the Ford Foundation for
a joint program in dynamic economics with the London
School of Economics. Finally, in 1952, she obtained a large
grant from the General Education Board Matched by 1958)
for a revolving research funs! enabling the Institute to fi-
nance fundamental, nonsponsored statistical research for
many years thereafter.
2 The Committee Cox and Harshbarger founded was still operating as of 1990
under the name of the Southern Regional Committee on Statistics. Though no
longer affiliated with the Southern Regional Education Board, it continues to spon-
sor summer research conferences.
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126
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Starting in 195S, Gertrude and seven other members of
the North Carolina State statistics faculty worker! out proce-
dures for establishing a Statistical Division in the proposed
not-for-profit Research Triangle Institute (RTI) between Ra-
leigh and Chapel Hill. RTI was established in ~ 959, and Ger-
trucle retired from North Carolina State in 1960 to direct its
Statistics Research Division, whose major component was the
sample survey unit. Retiring from that post in 1965, she con-
tinuect on as a consultant for many years, even occasionally
teaching her design course at North Carolina State. During
her five-year tenure, RTI- and especially the Statistics Divi-
sion became an internationally recognizes! consulting and
. ~
researc n organization.
Gertrude Cox was a consultant to the Pineapple Research
Institute of Hawaii, the WorIc! Health Organization in Gua-
temala, the U. S. Public Health Service, the government of
ThailancI, the Pan American Health Organization, and many
other organizations overseas. She served on a number of gov-
ernment committees including the U. S. Bureau of the BucI-
get's Advisory Committee on Statistical Policy (1956-19581;
the National Institutes of Health's Agricultural Marketing
Service, Epidemiology, and Biometry Committees ~ ~ 959-
1964~; and the National Science Foundation's Office of Edu-
cation (1963-1964) ant! Teacher Education Section (19661.
Even after retirement she served on advisory committees to
the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare ~ ~ 970-
1973), the Bureau of the Census, and the Department of
Agriculture (19741.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND HONORS
Gertrude Cox's major contribution to science was her abil-
ity to organize and administer programs, but her early ac-
complishments in psychological statistics and experimental
design were wiclely recognized.
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GERTRUDE MARY COX
127
Gertrude was a founding member of the International
Biometric Society in 1947, served as editor of its journal, Bio-
metrics, from 1947 to 1955, and was a member of its Council
three times and president from 1968 to 1969. She was proud
that she had attended every international meeting of the so-
ciety, and, in 1964, was awarded an honorary life member-
ship. She was also active in the International Statistical Insti-
tute ant! was a member of its Council in 1949, treasurer from
1955 to 1961, ant! chairman of the Education Committee
from 1962 to 1968. She was president of the American Sta-
tistical Association (ASA) in 1956.
She was a fellow of the American Public Health Associa-
tion, the American Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, ant! the ASA.
She was also a member of the Psychometric Society, the Royal
Statistical Society, ant! the Inter-American Statistical Insti-
tute. In recognition of her international reputation she was
named honorary vice-presiclent of the South African Statis-
tical Association, honorary member of the Societe Aclolphe
Quetelet of BeIgium, and the Thai Statistical Association, and
an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. She was a
member of the honor societies Delta Kappa Gamma (eclu-
cation), Gamma Sigma Delta (agriculture), Pi Mu Epsilon
(mathematics), Phi Kappa Phi (scholastic), and Sigma Xi (sci-
ence).
In 195S, Gertrude Cox's alma mater, Iowa State Univer-
sity, conferred upon her an honorary Doctorate of Science as
a "stimulating leacler in experimental statistics . . . outstand-
ing teacher, researcher, leacler ant! administrator . . . Her in-
fluence is worIclwicle, contributing to the development of na-
tional and international organizations, publications, and
councils of her fielcl." In 1959 she received the highest rec-
ognition the Consolidated University of North Carolina can
confer upon its faculty the 0. Max Gardner Award. The
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
citation named her a "statistical frontierswoman"—a phrase
suggested by the title of her ASA presidential adclress, "Sta-
tistical Frontiers."
In 1970, North Carolina State University honored her
once again by designating the building in which the Statistics
Department is located Cox Hall, and in 1977 a Gertrude M.
Cox Fellowship Func} was established for outstanding gracI-
uate students in statistics. Her most treasured honor came in
1975, when she was elected to the National Academy of Sci-
ences.
TRAVELS
Gertrude Cox was a worIcl traveller who particularly en-
joyed working in developing countries where she could offer
advice and inspiration. All of Gertrude's trips were carefully
planned, usually with reservations at excellent hotels. Fasci-
natecl by Egypt, she helpecl establish a statistical program at
Cairo University and, cluring the months she spent there,
toured many historical sites. She was especially excited by her
visits to the Sinai and to Abu Simbel.
Thailanc! was another of her particular favorites, and ~
was touched, when ~ visited Bangkok in 1982, by how much
the Thais lover! her. She loved wearing dresses she had had
macle from colorful Thai silk, and a grower of orchids since
her visits to Hawaii in the late 1940s she struck up a close
friendship with Rapee Sagarik, Thailancl's principal orchid
expert. (She grew these beautiful orchids for pleasure, not
profit, and enjoyed giving them to her friends, as my own
family can attest.)
C LO S I N G REMARKS
Gertrude Cox loved people, especially children. She al-
ways brought back gifts from her travels and was especially
generous at Christmas time. She considered the faculty mem-
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GERTRUDE MARY COX
129
hers and their families to be her family and entertained them
frequently. She was an excellent cook and had two hobbies
that she inclulged during her travels: collecting dolIs and sil-
ver spoons. She learned chip carving and block printing at
an early age and spent many hours training others in these
arts. She loved garclening, anal, when she had had a partic-
ularly hard clay with administrators, would work off her ex-
asperation in the garden. She had a fine appreciation for
balance, clesign, anti symmetry.
In 1976, Gertrude learned that she had leukemia but re-
mained sure that she would conquer it up to the end. She
even continued construction of a new house, unfortunately
not completecl until a week after her death. While uncler
treatment at Duke University Hospital she kept detailed re-
corcis of her progress, and her doctor often referred to them.
With characteristic testy humor she called herself"the ex-
perimental unit," and diect as she had lived, fighting to the
encI. To those of us who were fortunate to be with her
through so many years, Raleigh will never be the same.
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130
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1930
A statistical study of industrial science students of the class of 1926.
Iowa Acad. Sci. Proc., 37:337-41.
1931
The use of the individual parts of the aptitude test for predicting
success of students. Iowa Acad. Sci. Proc., 38:225-27.
1933
With C. W. Brown and P. Bartelme. The scoring of individual per-
formance on tests scaled according to the theory of absolute
scaling. l. Educ. Psychol., 24:654-62.
1935
With G. W. Snedecor. Disproportionate subclass numbers in tables
of multiple classification. Iowa Agric. Exp. Stn. Res. Bull.,
180:233-72.
Index number of Iowa farm products prices. Iowa Agric. Exp. Stn.
Bull., 336:297-328.
1936
With G. W. Snedecor. Covariance used to analyze the relation be-
tween corn yield and acreage. J. Farm Econ., 18:597-607.
1937
With H. Gaskill. Patterns in emotional reactions: I. Respiration.
The use of analysis of variance and covariance in psychological
data. l. Gen. Psychol., 16:21-38.
With G. W. Snedecor. Analysis of covariance of yield and time to
first silks in maize. J. Agric. Res., 54:449-59.
With W. P. Martin. Use of discriminant function for differentiating
soils with different asotabacter populations. Iowa State Coll. l.
Sci., 11:323-32.
1939
The multiple factor theory in terms of common elements. Psy-
chometrika, 4:59~8.
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GERTRUDE MARY COX
131
With M. G. Weiss. Balanced incomplete block and lattice square
designs for testing yield differences among large numbers of
soybean varieties. Iowa Agric. Exp. Stn. Res. Bull., 257:290-
316.
1940
Enumeration and construction of balanced incomplete block con-
figurations. Ann. Math. Stat., 11:72-85.
With R. C. Eckhardt and W. G. Cochran. The analysis of lattice and
triple lattice experiments in corn varietal tests. Iowa Agric. Exp.
Stn. Res. Bull., 281: 1-66.
1941
With H. V. Gaskill. Patterns in emotional reactions. II. Heart rate
and blood pressure. l. Gen. Psychol., 23:409-21.
1942
With H. McKay, et al. Length of the observation period as a factor
in variability in calcium retentions. I. Home Econ., 34:679-81.
With H. McKay, et al. Calcium, phosphorus, and nitrogen metab-
olism of young college women. I. Nutr., 24:367-84.
1944
Modernized field designs at Rothamsted. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc.,
8:20-22.
Statistics as a tool for research. l. Home Econ., 36:575-80.
1945
Opportunities for teaching and research. I. Am. Stat. Assoc.,
229:71-74.
1946
With W. G. Cochran. Designs of greenhouse experiments for sta-
tistical analysis. Soil Sci., 62:87-98.
1950
The function of designs of experiments. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.,
52(Art. 6~:800-7.
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132
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
With W. G. Cochran. Experimental Designs. New York: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc.
1953
Elements of an effective inter-American training program in agri-
cultural statistics. Estadist., 11: 120-28.
1957
Statistical frontiers. l. Am. Stat. Assoc., 52:1-12. (Institute of Sta-
tistics Reprint Series, no. 99.)
With W. G. Cochran. Experimental Designs. Ed ed. New York: John
Wiley & Sons.
1964
With W. S. Connor. Methodology for estimating reliability. Ann.
Inst. Stat. Math. The Twentieth Anniversary, 16:55-67.
1972
The Biometric Society: The first twenty-five years (1947-19721.
Biometrics, 28~2) :285-311.
1975
With Paul G. Homeyer. Professional and personal glimpses of
George W. Snedecor. Biometrics, 31~2~:265-301.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
gertrude mary
