A Conversation with Morris Hansen

Morris Hansen was born on December 15, 1910 in Thermopolis, Wyoming. He entered the University of Wyoming in 1928. After a working leave for a year he returned to the University in 1930, and received his BS degree in accounting in 1934. After graduating, he joined the Bureau of the Census in Washington, D. C. He studied part time for several years at the graduate school of the Department of Agriculture and American University, and received his master's degree in statistics from American University in 1940; he became Chief of the Statistical Research Division at the Bureau of the Census in 1947, Assistant Director for Statistical Standards in 1949 and Associate Director for Research and Development in 1961. He retired from the Bureau of the Census in 1968, and joined Westat, Inc., then a small statistical research, consulting and service organization, as Statistical Advisor and Senior Vice President. In 1986 he became Chairman of the Board. He received an honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Wyoming in 1959, was President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1953, President of the American Statistical Association in 1960 and President of the International Association of Survey Statisticians 19731977. He is Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. The following conversation took place in late May 1986 in Washington, D. C.