ENBIS 2006 Box Medal Committee

1. Gerry Hahn ENBIS 2006 Box Medal Committee • Ron Kenett (Chair) • Rainer Goeb • Daniele Romano • David Steinberg • Xavier Tort-Martell

2. Official brief CV • Gerald J. (Gerry) Hahn, retired as Manager—Applied Statistics, GE Research and Development in May 2001. At GE he led an 18-person group that provided leadership to GE businesses in applying statistical tools to meet their strategic goals, including Six Sigma implementation. Gerry joined GE in 1955 and assumed his managerial position in 1973. He received his Ph.D in Operations Research & Statistics from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and also holds degrees from the City College of New York, Columbia University, and Union College. He is the co-author of three books, has contributed to ten others, published over 100 papers in refereed engineering and statistical journals, has given over 150 invited presentations, and written regular columns for Chemtech and Quality Progress. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) and the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and is an elected member of the International Statistics Institute. He is the recipient of 12 special ASA and ASQ awards (including ASQ’s Distinguished Service Medal and Deming, Hunter, Shewhart, Wilcoxon and Youden Prizes), and is a GE R&D Coolidge Fellow. He has been the keynote speaker at numerous conferences. His professional contributions include founding chair of the ASA Section on Quality and Productivity, chair of the ASA Committee on Fellows, Associate Editor of Technometrics, Journal of Quality Technology, and Six Sigma Forum and chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Statistics in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. He is currently an adjunct professor at RPI, is completing a new book on his experiences as an industrial statistician, and is serving as a consultant to various companies.

3. The real story • Gerry Hahn first achieved notoriety when he was expelled from kindergarten at age 5 for bad behavior. He hung around various schools including City College of New York, Columbia University, University of Utah, Union College and Virginia Tech until Resnsselaer Polytechnic Institute finally granted him a terminaldegree in 1971. In 1953, Gerry was drafted into the U.S. Army and achieved the lofty rank of corporal one week before his discharge in 1955. He then joined the GE Company as an Applied Statistician at what is now the Global Research Center. After 18 years it was evident that he would not accomplish anything of note, so he was appointed Manager Applied Statistics, a position he held for the next 28 years. In 1956, Bea finally consented to marry him; they have three married daughters and five grandchildren. In 2001, GE finally got rid of Gerry. He now spends his time traveling, volunteering, grandparenting and writing a book, with Necip Doganaksoy, on what he wished he had known 50 years ago (but did not).