I contacted Kenny Crump via email to let him know about this ebook and to ask for a copy of his vita. I also requested an interview to learn about his time at MSU. I asked how he decided to become a statistician and to choose MSU for graduate work. During a subsequent conversation, I explained our interest in his course work and textbooks. I asked if he knew why some critical math and stat faculty members simultaneously left MSU around 1966. I asked how he was able to write a dissertation after his thesis director left MSU. Kenny was pleased to know about the book and was willing to discuss all these issues. We exchanged emails and had a couple of telephone conversations. The following narrative is based on my notes and Kenny’s emails.

– Marty Hamilton Nov., 2020.

 

Kenny Crump was born, brought up, and educated in Louisiana. He received a B.S. from Louisiana Tech University in 1961, after which he began graduate studies while a Research Associate in the Denver Research Institute, University of Denver. Kenny explained he went to Denver and then Bozeman because while growing up in Louisiana he was fascinated by the Rocky Mountains. He came to MSU to study mathematics and became a dedicated statistician later. Kenny explained:

“My undergraduate degree was in Electrical Engineering and I had only switched to mathematics while working on my M.A. at the University of Denver, the year before I enrolled at MSU.  So, I was woefully unprepared to pursue a PhD degree in mathematics.  I recall Dr. Whitesitt [then Head of the Math Department at MSU] asking me at my interview if I had had any algebra.  I replied that sure, I had that in high school.  As I recall he just nodded and enrolled me in an undergraduate course in algebra taught by Vinnie Miller, who, by the way, was a great teacher.
 
I had taken a course in probability at DU out of Feller, Vol. 1 [William Feller, An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, Vol 1] and I was interested in following that route on my PhD, which led me to working under Dr. Mode.  I didn’t take any statistics courses at MSU, never had a class from Dr. Quesenberry or Dr. McFeely, (my impression was that McFeely taught mostly applied statistics courses, so I was not drawn to taking classes from him, although he did serve on my committee as I recall.) and all the statistics I had at DU was a course from Mood and Graybill [Alexander Mood and Franklin Graybill, Introduction to the Theory of Statistics] that dealt almost exclusively with probability and a 2-hour reading course in Cramér [Harald Cramér, Mathematical Methods of Statistics].  So, my education in statistics came mostly from teaching and trying to use it in my work.  Thus, my knowledge of statistics is pretty spotty, not an approach I would recommend to someone who is interested in doing statistics.
 
Outside of Dr. Mode, the professors at MSU who had the greatest impact on me were Dr. Nichols, who taught me real variables and topology, and Dr. Hurst. Dr. Nichols taught me hard work and how to think mathematically. Dr. Hurst was no longer the department head when I arrived, and I never had a class from him, but he was in charge of the graduate students who were teaching calculus. His guidance had a profound effect on the teaching methods I employed later. His wife died while I was in Bozeman and he took a job in western New York at about the same time I left Bozeman. I had the good fortune of hooking up with him while I was at SUNY in Buffalo.”


Kenny took a graduate algebra sequence from Dr. Whitesitt and thought Whitesitt was an excellent teacher. Kenny said Dr. Hurst was instrumental in building a graduate program. Hurst recruited some excellent faculty from overseas. Dr. Hurst was “ahead of his time.” Dr. Paul Nickel (topology and real variables), who was an important mentor to Kenny, left MSU to take a position at North Carolina State at the same time that the statistician Dr. Charles Quesenberry moved to NC State.

When Kenny was in the first stages of his dissertation research in 1966, his major professor Dr. Charles Mode left MSU for a position at SUNY–Buffalo. Mode subsequently moved to Drexel University in 1970, where he stayed until retirement as Professor Emeritus of Mathematics in 1998. I (MAH) asked Kenny why Mode, Quesenberry, and other MSU faculty left for other universities during those years. Kenny did not discuss that topic with Mode or any other MSU faculty so he really doesn’t know. Kenny recalled that, during a casual conversation among some students and faculty, Department Head Whitesitt said MSU should not be offering a PhD in mathematics. That view could well discourage those faculty who were trying to build a reputable PhD program and prompt them to look elsewhere. [My own experience indicates that there was disagreement among the faculty about the wisdom of MSU changing from an undergraduate institution into a research university with a full complement of graduate degrees, a transition that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s.]

After Kenny completed his course work and qualifying exams, he took a teaching position at Louisiana Tech University, where he planned to finish his dissertation. That year he worked hard, but was disappointed by his slow progress on the dissertation. He talked to Dr. Mode who suggested that they could work together at Iowa State University during the next summer while Mode was doing research there. Kenny and family moved to Ames, IA, and by the end of the summer he was making headway on the dissertation. For the next academic year, Dr. Mode was able to fund Kenny on a research grant and to facilitate Kenny’s appointment as Research Associate in the Department of Statistics, State University of New York at Buffalo. (Kenny was on leave from Louisiana Tech University). The Crump family moved to Buffalo and Kenny had a productive year working with Mode.

The existence of Kenny Crump’s PhD candidacy, pending completion of his dissertation, apparently fell through the cracks when the Department Headship transitioned from Dr. Eldon Whitesitt to Dr. Louis Barrett. Kenny wrote:

“After completing my thesis at SUNY, I wrote the new department head, Dr. Barrett, and told him I was ready to graduate. He apparently didn’t take kindly to a student he had never heard of stating he was ready to receive his PhD. He wrote me back with some alternate suggestions, one of which was for me to come back to Bozeman, get a new advisor and essentially start over. However, Dr. Mode stepped up and communicated with Dr. Barrett, and MSU very graciously worked things out. As I recall, MSU actually paid for Dr. Mode and another faculty member from SUNY, Dr. Bob Rodine, for travel to Bozeman, so they could attend my dissertation defense and serve on my committee.”


In response to my initial email message to Kenny, he skimmed this History of the Statistics Program at MSU and sent an enthusiastic reply, including:

“... really brought back a lot of memories.  In fact, after receiving your email, Shirley and I decided this morning that we are going to plan to visit Bozeman next summer.  I have only been back a few times since graduating.  About 25 or so years ago we took our children on a ski trip to Big Sky, and we also skied Bridger Bowl. Then in around 1995 my son and I flew in to Kalispell and rode bikes up through Glacier Park and then down through Helena, Bozeman and Yellowstone, eventually winding up at Jackson Hole. At any rate I have very fond memories of Bozeman and Montana.”

Last revised: 2021-02-12