Walter Francis Willcox

{{Infobox economist

| name = Walter F. Willcox

| image =

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date |1861|3|22|mf=y}}

| birth_place =Reading, Massachusetts

| death_date = {{death date and age |1964|10|30| 1861|3|22|mf=y}}

| death_place =Ithaca, New York

| nationality = American

| institution = Cornell University

| field =

| school_tradition =

| doctoral_advisor = Richmond Mayo-Smith

| doctoral_students = Allyn Abbott Young

| awards =

| memorials =

| spouse =

| children = one daughter and 3 sons

|education=Amherst College
Columbia University}}

Walter Francis Willcox (March 22, 1861 – October 30, 1964){{cite journal|last = Rice|first = Stuart A|author-link = Stuart A. Rice|title = Walter Francis Willcox, March 28, 1861 - October 30, 1964|journal = Revue de l'Institut International de Statistique / Review of the International Statistical Institute|volume = 32|issue = 3|pages = 340–346|publisher = ISI|year = 1964|jstor = 1401885}} was an American statistician. He was professor of economics at Cornell University.{{Cite news |date=1964 |title=Walter Willcox, an Economist, 103; Ex-Cornell Professor Dies —Aide for Census Unit |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/31/archives/walter-willcox-an-economist-103-excornell-professor-dies-aide-for.html |work=New York Times}} He founded the statistical research office in the U.S. Census Bureau.{{Citation |last=Anderson |first=Margo J. |title=Walter Francis Willcox |date=2001 |work=Statisticians of the Centuries |pages=265–267 |editor-last=Heyde |editor-first=C. C. |editor1-link=Chris Heyde |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0179-0_56 |publisher=Springer |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-4613-0179-0_56 |isbn=978-1-4613-0179-0 |editor2-link=Eugene Seneta|editor2-last=Seneta |editor2-first=E. |editor3-last=Crépel |editor3-first=P. |editor4-last=Fienberg |editor4-first=S. E.}}

Early life and education

He was born in Reading, Massachusetts, to William Henry Willcox, a congregational minister, and Anne Holmes Goodenow. He was graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, in 1880, from Amherst College in 1884 with an A.B., and in 1888 received an A.M. degree from Amherst College. He received an LL.B degree (1887) and a Ph.D. (1891) from Columbia University. In 1906 he received an honorary LL.D. degree from Amherst College.{{cite journal|last = Leonard|first = William R.|title = Walter Francis Willcox: Statist|journal = The American Statistician|volume = 15|issue = 1|pages = 16–19|publisher = American Statistical Association|year = 1961|jstor = 2682503|doi = 10.2307/2682503}}

Life

Willcox was a Cornell University faculty member from 1891 to 1931. He was initially an instructor in philosophy but became a professor of economics at Cornell. He held the presidency of the American Statistical Association from 1911 to 1912 and of the American Economic Association in 1915.

He published The Divorce Problem, A Study in Statistics (1891; second edition, 1897).{{Cite journal |last1=Edgeworth |first1=F. Y. |last2=Willcox |first2=W. F. |date=1892 |title=The Divorce Problem. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2956158 |journal=The Economic Journal |volume=2 |issue=6 |pages=341 |doi=10.2307/2956158|jstor=2956158 }} In his research on divorce, he estimated that one in 12 marriages in the United States ended in divorce in 1909 and that if trends continued, approximately one in two marriages would end in divorce.{{Cite news |date=1909 |title=Divorce Statistics |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1909/01/13/archives/divorce-statistics.html |work=New York Times}}

He also published Supplementary Analysis and Derivative Tables, twelfth census (1906). He contributed the "Negroes in the United States" subsection to the "Negro" article {{cite EB1911 |last=Joyce |first=Thomas Athol |authorlink=Thomas Athol Joyce |wstitle=Negro |volume=19 |pages=344–346}} in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. (The main section, by Thomas Athol Joyce,

is of interest today for the insight it gives into racial prejudices of the time.)

Willcox initiated the first statistics course at Cornell in 1892, one of the earliest university courses in statistics in the United States, and one among 16 universities with such courses in the 1890s.{{efn|, p.16}} His research interest was in vital statistics. Emil Julius Gumbel described his body of work, collected in Studies in American Demography, as "the type of old-fashioned writings which will continue to be of value notwithstanding all progress achieved in mathematical statistics."{{cite journal|last = Gumbel|first = E. J.|author-link = Emil Julius Gumbel|title = Review of Studies in American Demography|journal = The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|volume = 218|issue = 1|page = 239|publisher = American Academy of Political and Social Science|year = 1941|url = http://ann.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/218/1/239|access-date = 2010-05-31|doi=10.1177/000271624121800175|s2cid = 143243591}}

In 1911, Willcox claimed there would be "no children in the United States under five years of age" by the year 2020. Perpetuating ideas of race suicide, Willcox erroneously explained that the United States' birth rate meant that importing babies from France would be the only option for maintaining population levels.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/58987567/ |title=2 Jan 1911, Page 2 - Fort Scott Daily Tribune and Fort Scott Daily Monitor at |publisher=Newspapers.com |date=1911-01-02 |accessdate=2022-06-05}}

After serving as one of five chief statisticians for the U.S. Census in 1900,{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1890/1890-delaware.html|title = 1890 Census, Delaware|date = 15 August 2016}}{{Cite journal |last=Mitchell |first=Wesley C. |date=1900 |title=Preparations for the Twelfth Census |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/250680 |journal=Journal of Political Economy |language=en |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=378–384 |doi=10.1086/250680 |issn=0022-3808}} Willcox proved that for any method of apportionment that involves rounding, a priority list can be created by dividing the rounding point into each state's population,[https://thirty-thousand.org/documents/CRS_OCT2000.pdf Documents] Thirty-Thousand.org {{dead link|date=July 2023}} by which each seat can be assigned in successive order based on each state's priority listings.

Willcox was an advocate for reducing the number of seats in the House of Representatives. He proposed to reduce one seat per year.

In 1947, Willcox served a short term as the president of the International Statistical Institute.

Willcox died in Ithaca, New York leaving 3 sons and one daughter. These were Mary Goodenow Willcox, Bertram Francis Willcox (1895-1987) who practiced law in New York before taking up a position at Cornell,{{cite web | title = Bertram Francis Willcox | website =Cornell University| access-date = 19 October 2024 |url = https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/093f8055-477c-4a68-bcc8-9bd5a8e5644c/content }} Alan Willcox (1901-1978), who served as general counsel to the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and William B. Willcox (1907-1985) who was an academic historian.{{cite news | title = Allanson W. Willcox | work =Ithaca Journal| date= 28 April 1978| access-date =18 October 2024 |url = https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-alanson-willcox-obitu/72190672/ }}

Publications

Studies in American Demography, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press (1940).
International Migrations, Volume II: Interpretations (Editor), New York: National Bureau of Economic Research (1931).
[http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMA00504.html Walter Francis Willcox papers], #14-10-504. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.

References

Category:1861 births

Category:1964 deaths

Category:Phillips Academy alumni

Category:20th-century American mathematicians

Category:American statisticians

Category:American men centenarians

Category:Amherst College alumni

Category:Columbia Law School alumni

Category:Cornell University Department of History faculty

Category:Presidents of the American Statistical Association

Category:Presidents of the International Statistical Institute

Category:20th-century American essayists

Category:Presidents of the American Economic Association