Bernard Harris

Bernard Harris passed away peacefully on Friday, January 28, 2011 at Tulane University Medical Center in New Orleans, LA following complications from heart surgery.   Bernard was born on June 20, 1926 in New York City, the son of Samuel S. and Ella L. (Heyman) Harris.   An academically precocious youngster, he graduated at an early age from Townsend-Harris High School, and then entered City College of New York.   During the midst of his college education, he was drafted into the army, assigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps, and sent to Germany near the end of World War II.   Upon completion of military service, he finished his Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration at City College in 1946.   He changed his academic focus to mathematics and statistics, earned a master's degree from George Washington University in 1953 and, in one year, completed his doctorate at Stanford University in 1958.   During the years between his master's and doctorate degrees, he worked as a statistician at the U.S. Census Bureau and as a mathematician for the National Security Agency.   After completion of his doctorate, he became an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.   He moved to Madison, WI to work as a professor in the Mathematics Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1964 to 1985 and as a professor in the Statistics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1966 to 2002.   After his retirement from UW-Madison, he rejoined the faculty of the Statistics Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and was an adjunct faculty member there until his death.   Bernard enjoyed visiting professorships at the Technical Institute in Munich, Germany; Technical University of Eindhoven, Netherlands; University of Lund, Sweden; the Mathematics Institute Steklova, Moscow, Russia; University of Muenster, Germany; Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf, Germany; and the Kungliska Techniska Hogskolan.   He was a member of many commissions and advisory boards for the government including a review board of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Statistics Task Force for the FAA/DOD Committee on Material Properties.   He was an elected fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the American Statistical Association.   He was proud to be one of founding members of the Section on Risk Analysis for the American Statistical Association and served as its first chair.   He was a member of the Classification Society of North America, and served on its board of directors.   He was also a member of the International Classification Society and the American Mathematical Association.    He was a recipient of the Pioneers of Science Award.   Professor Harris was a perennial advocate of and contributor to statistical science for the Department of the Army.   He participated as part of the Mathematics Research Center at Wisconsin that supported the Army in addressing research questions and presented his work at countless annual statistical conferences sponsored by the Army spanning the years 1964-2010.   His contributions to risk analysis, reliability, probability, and statistical inferences with application to open DOD questions, such as the survivability of subterranean targets, was recognized in 1982 with the Wilks Award for Contributions to Statistical Methodologies in Army Research, Development and Testing.   His work continued to address current problems in his later years, with recent work concerning mathematical methods in combating terrorism and his 2010 paper entitled ""Random Contamination of Semiconductor Materials."" Bernard was the author of the book, Theory of Probability and the editor of Spectral Analysis of Time series and Graph Theory and its Applications.   He published hundreds of articles and reviews in professional journals over the course of his career.   He was most proud of his work in random mappings, combinatorics, reliability and risk analysis.     In addition to his academic interests, Bernard enjoyed a wide variety of music (classical, opera and jazz), reading in several languages, gourmet cooking, films, and doing the New York Times Crossword Puzzles in ink.   He loved to create simple and complex puns.   Most of all, Bernard deeply loved and appreciated his family and steadfastly supported them with his advice and presence.   Bernard was a member of the Beth Isreal congregation in Madison.     Bernard married Anita (Greenberg) in 1949.   He and Anita had four children:   Shelley Nolte, Mark Harris (Katherine), David Harris (Susan) and Susan Handrich (Tom).   His wife, Anita, died in 1977.   He married Susan Stephens Burns in 1983 and was a stepfather to Laura Burns (Brad Sinner) and Erin Charles (Jesse).   He was the proud grandfather of Laura Boss, Madeline and Andrew Harris, Max and Ben Handrich, Duncan Charles, and Milo Burns.   He was preceded in death by his parents; his brothers, Alan and Alvin; his first wife, Anita, and his beloved daughter, Shelley.   A funeral service will be held at CRESS FUNERAL HOME, 3610 Speedway Road, Madison, on Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. with Rabbi Joshua Ben Gideon officiating. A visitation will be held at the funeral home on Tuesday from 10:00 a.m. until the time of service.  In lieu of flowers, any memorials will be directed to the establishment of an award through the American Statistical Association to support the education of young statisticians.