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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3 Representatives are pleased to honor Dr. David Blackwell for
4 his many professional and academic achievements; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Dr. David Blackwell was born on April 24, 1919 in
6 Centralia, where he attended the local public schools; in 1935,
7 at the age of sixteen, he entered the University of Illinois in
8 Champaign-Urbana, where he received his bachelor's degree in
9 1938, his master's degree in 1939, and his doctorate in 1941,
10 all in mathematics; and
 
11     WHEREAS, After a post doctoral fellowship at Princeton and
12 instructorships at Southern University and Clark College, Dr.
13 David Blackwell joined the faculty of Howard University in 1944
14 as an instructor, achieving the ranks of Full Professor and
15 Chairman in three years; and
 
16     WHEREAS, During his time at Howard University, Dr. David
17 Blackwell distinguished himself as an excellent teacher, an
18 able leader (as department chair from 1947 to 1954), and a very
19 productive scholar, publishing more than twenty papers during
20 his tenure; while in Washington, he met M. A. Girschick of the
21 Department of Agriculture, who was a collaborator in many
22 works, including their 1954 book, Theory of Games and

 

 

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1 Statistical Decisions, which became a classic in their field;
2 when he joined the faculty at Berkeley, he chaired the
3 Department of Statistics from 1957 to 1961 and published an
4 additional 50-plus papers; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Dr. David Blackwell's professional activities as
6 a scholar have brought him widespread recognition and acclaim;
7 he has received honorary Doctorate of Science degrees from
8 Harvard University, Yale University, the University of
9 Illinois, Howard University, Carnegie-Mellon University, the
10 University of Southern California, Michigan State University,
11 Syracuse University, Southern Illinois University, the
12 University of Warwick, the National University of Lesotho, and
13 Amherst College; he has been selected to be president of the
14 Institute of Mathematics Statistics, the International
15 Association for Statistics in Physical Sciences, and the
16 Bernoulli Society; he has served as Vice President of the
17 International Statistical Institute, the American Statistical
18 Association, and the American Mathematical Society; two of the
19 highest honors bestowed upon him, however, have been his
20 election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1965, in which
21 he is the first and only African-American mathematician to be
22 elected, and his election to the American Academy of Arts and
23 Sciences; and
 
24     WHEREAS, Dr. David Blackwell served as President of the

 

 

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1 Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1955; he is an Honorary
2 Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society; in 1979, he won the
3 von Neumann Theory Prize from the Operations Research Society
4 of America; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Dr. David Blackwell has mentored and supervised
6 the dissertations and research of many students in the fields
7 of statistics and mathematics and is an inspiration to many
8 minorities in scientific and analytical fields; he is generally
9 acknowledged by the scientific community to be one of the
10 finest statisticians and mathematicians that America has
11 produced; therefore, be it
 
12     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
13 NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
14 honor Dr. David Blackwell for his many professional and
15 academic achievements and wish him continued success in his
16 future work; and be it further
 
17     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
18 presented to Dr. David Blackwell as a symbol of our esteem and
19 respect.