Ted Harding

[John Whittington]

I'm sorry to have to report that I have recently discovered that Ted Harding died at the end of October last year, after a long period of  deteriorating health.

Ted was one of the founding members of MedStats and, until a couple of years ago, was a frequent and valuable contributor to discussions here, as well as in a number of other groups (particularly R-related ones).  For the last couple of years of his life, failing eyesight precluded most such activities, which I am sure will have been extremely frustrating for him.

Ted started academic life as a Mathematician and then 'moved into Statistics' in the mid-1960s, and seems to have had a fairly eminent career, including a number of years at the Cambridge Statistical Laboratory, during which period he co-authored (with David Kendall) what may be fairly 'seminal' books on Stochastic Analysis and Stochastic Geometry in 1973/4.  He once described his Statistical career as follows:

As for my own history in Statistics: I have worked in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Manchester Universities until retirement in 2001, on matters ranging from Probability and Statistical Theory to Medicine, Biology, Fisheries, Whaling, Engineering and Pollution Monitoring.

Ted was a man with a wide range of interests, extending far beyond his areas of professional work, and had a very keen sense of humour.  Speaking personally, for a considerable period of time he provided me with invaluable support in relation to my admittedly limited mathematical skills.  In that role he was not only a very good supporter/teacher, but was never condescending.  Whenever I approached him apologetically with what I usually described as a 'stupid, simple or basic' mathematical question, he nearly always started his reply by explaining why my question was not "stupid, simple or basic"!

I will certainly miss Ted, as I'm sure that others who remember him undoubtedly also will.

Kind Regards,

John

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[Bruce Weaver]

Thanks for sharing that with us, John.  I never met Ted, but certainly do remember reading and learning from his posts to Medstats.  My condolences to you, and to his family and other friends if they happen to see this. 

Bruce

[Marc Schwartz]

Hi John,

Thanks for this update.

I was not aware of Ted's health situation, so was surprised to see this, though it reminded me that it has been a while since I had last seen him post either here or on the R lists.

My sincere condolences to you, his family, colleagues and friends.

Regards,

Marc Schwartz


John Whittington wrote on 5/2/21 4:24 PM:

[John Whittington]

See below - according to my wife, "he looked like a Mathematician" !!  

If I understand the captions correctly, the latter photo was taken just 7 days before his death.  It also appears that he was interviewed on ITV Anglia News one day after that (about a local community issue he was campaigning about!).  It therefore seems that, despite his deteriorating health over a long period, he remained pretty 'active' and, I assume, must have passed away 'suddenly/unexpectedly'.



Kind Regards,
John

At 18:11 03/05/2021, 'Marc Schwartz' via MedStats wrote:

Hi John,

Thanks for this update.

I was not aware of Ted's health situation, so was surprised to see this, though it reminded me that it has been a while since I had last seen him post either here or on the R lists.

My sincere condolences to you, his family, colleagues and friends.

Regards,

Marc Schwartz


John Whittington wrote on 5/2/21 4:24 PM:

I'm sorry to have to report that I have recently discovered that Ted Harding died at the end of October last year, after a long period of  deteriorating health.

Ted was one of the founding members of MedStats and, until a couple of years ago, was a frequent and valuable contributor to discussions here, as well as in a number of other groups (particularly R-related ones).  For the last couple of years of his life, failing eyesight precluded most such activities, which I am sure will have been extremely frustrating for him.

Ted started academic life as a Mathematician and then 'moved into Statistics' in the mid-1960s, and seems to have had a fairly eminent career, including a number of years at the Cambridge Statistical Laboratory, during which period he co-authored (with David Kendall) what may be fairly 'seminal' books on Stochastic Analysis and Stochastic Geometry in 1973/4.  He once described his Statistical career as follows:

As for my own history in Statistics: I have worked in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Manchester Universities until retirement in 2001, on matters ranging from Probability and Statistical Theory to Medicine, Biology, Fisheries, Whaling, Engineering and Pollution Monitoring.

Ted was a man with a wide range of interests, extending far beyond his areas of professional work, and had a very keen sense of humour.  Speaking personally, for a considerable period of time he provided me with invaluable support in relation to my admittedly limited mathematical skills.  In that role he was not only a very good supporter/teacher, but was never condescending.  Whenever I approached him apologetically with what I usually described as a 'stupid, simple or basic' mathematical question, he nearly always started his reply by explaining why my question was not "stupid, simple or basic"!

I will certainly miss Ted, as I'm sure that others who remember him undoubtedly also will.

Kind Regards,

John

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[Bunce, Catey]

So sorry to see this news.  I didn’t meet Ted in person but benefited greatly from his expertise via this group.   Thanks to all who contribute.  Best wishes, Catey

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/medstats/202105040026.1440Qj5p013552%40mail265c50.megamailservers.eu.