Besse Mauss

When Besse Beulah Day was born in September 1889 in Missouri, her father, William, was 30, and her mother, Ida, was 28. She had one brother and three sisters. She died on September 14, 1986, in New Oxford, Pennsylvania, at the age of 97. Besse was a graduate of Oak Grove (Mo.) High School She earned her B.S. in Mathematics at Missouri State College, Warrenburg; and her M.A. in Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Michigan. She taught mathematics in a North Dakota High School and later at Minot State Teachers College where she was a supervisor in the training department. Worked thereafter principally in the application of statistical techniques in research, development and quality control of production in the fields of engineering and forestry. 1927‐29 Victor Talking Machine Company; 1930‐43 V. S. Forest Service; 1943‐47 the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, on the development and production of the radio proximity fuse; 1947-1954, head of Statistician's Office and member of Engineering Council, U. S. Naval Engineering Experiment Station, Annapolis, Md. Fellow American Statistical Association and American Society for Quality Control; Executive Committee of Physical Sciences, A. S. A.; Director of Middle Atlantic Region, American Society for Quality Control. Consulting Statistician to the Chief of the Bureau of Ships, with additional duties as Head, Statistical Engineering Section, Research and Development; Fellow American Statistical Association and American Society for Quality Control; member of the International Statistical Institute; Past Chairman of the Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences of American Statistical Association; past member of Executive Committee of ASQC; published and given papers on applications of Statistics to engineering problems. 1954 Am. Stat. Assoc. Program Chairman; 1957 Brumbaugh Award winner for paper in Industrial Quality Control judged to have made the greatest contribution to the development of industrial applications of statistical quality control; member Washington Academy of Science; July 1, 1960 the Association of Senior Engineers of Bureau of Ships. Published other writings and given papers on applications of Statistics to engineering. In 1959 was married to C. E. Mauss but retains original name for professional purposes.