Leonard Henry Caleb Tippett

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Leonard Henry Caleb Tippett (1902 - 1985), physicist and statistician, born in London. Tippett graduated in physics in the early 1920s at Imperial College. He studied for his MSc in statistics under Professor Karl Pearson at the Galton Laboratory, University College London and R. A. Fisher at Rothamsted. He spent his entire career, 1925 to 1965, on the staff of the Shirley Institute, Manchester becoming in 1952 one of the first Assistant Directors. Pioneered with R.A. Fisher and Emil Gumbel the extreme value theory. The Fisher-Tippett distribution is named after his achievements.

At the Shirley Institute he applied statistics to the problem of yarn breakage rates in weaving. In the late 1920s and 1930s he became known for his 'snap-reading' method of observation which lead to improved production efficiency and operative utilization. As a result of his work in the textile industry he was awarded the Shewart Medal of the American Society for Quality Control.

In 1965 he retired to St. Austell and in this period became an UNIDO consultant being active in India

He died in 1985 after being hit by a van whilst walking from his home to the St. Austell Choral Society to sing in the St. Matthew Passion.

[edit] Awards

• Warner Medal of the Textile Institute
• Guy Medal in Silver of the Royal Statistical Society
• Honorary MSc UMIST
• President of the Manchester Statistical Society
• President of the Royal Statistical Society, 1965

[edit] Books

• Random Sampling Numbers, CUP, London, 1927
• Methods of Statistics, Williams & Norgate Ltd., London, 1931, 1948, 1952
• Statistical Methods for Textile Technologists, by T. Murphy, K. P. Norris, L. H. C. Tippett, Textile Institute, Manchester, 1960, 1963, 1973, 1979
• A Portrait of the Lancashire Textile Industry, OUP, London 1969

[edit] References

• H. E. Daniels, A Tribute to L.H.C. Tippett, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General), Vol. 145, No. 2 (1986), pp. 261-262.
• J. E. Ford, L.H.C. Tippett, 1902-1985, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General), Vol. 149, No. 1 (1986), p. 44. (obituary)