Virginia Tech professor and statistics pioneer Irving John "Jack" Good died Sunday evening at the age of 92. Good died of natural causes.
Starting as a professor of statistics in 1967, Good was paid more than the university president at the time, Thomas Marshall Hahn Jr. Good was appointed university distinguished professor in 1969 and attained emeritus status in 1994. Good was an inspiring figure for many at Tech.
"One of the reasons I came here to Virginia Tech was to work with him," said Eric Smith, department head for the department of statistics.
Born Isidore Jacob on Dec. 9, 1916 in London, Good was a child prodigy, tackling difficult mathematical principles by the age of nine. Good went on to earn multiple degrees at Cambridge and Oxford. Good also was critical to Britain's war efforts during World War II, developing computing systems in order to break German codes.
Good was critical in increasing the popularity of Bayesian statistics along with the theory of the weight of evidence.
"Jack was one of the pioneers of Bayesian statistics," Smith said.
Good published numerous books, including "Probability and the Weighing of Evidence," "The Estimation of Probabilities: an Essay on Modern Bayesian Method," and "Good Thinking: the Foundations of Probability and its Applications," and contributed to countless publications.
Good's work inspired many future works, especially his methods for the fast calculation of discrete Fourier transforms. Good also advised Stanley Kubrick during the filming of "2001: A Space Odyssey." Smith, who worked with Good on certain projects, said Good was a good collaborator.
"I found him to be a very easy person to work with him. His door was always open," Smith said. "Often times he had some really good advice." Smith added that Good was knowledgeable in a wide variety of subjects.
"We in statistics tend to have a narrow focus, but Jack had a broad base of knowledge," Smith said. "His ability to publish leading author papers was a lot more diverse than most faculty." Smith added Good kept a widespread circle of colleagues and was also an active member of Mensa, a prestigious intellectual group.
"He worked with a whole variety of people," Smith said.
He is survived by a half-sister Yemaiel Aris, nephews Raymond and Desmond Good and their families in England, cousin James Randall of New York City, other relatives, and close friend Leslie Pendleton.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at the Blacksburg Jewish Community Center.