On 14 June 2024, a dear friend and colleague of RC33 and the BMS (Bulletin of Sociological Methodology / Bulletne de méthodologie sociologique), Don A. Dillman passed away at the age of 82. He was universally known in sociology and statistics as a major contributor (https://www.corbeillfuneralhomes.com/obituary/don-dillman), and was a contributor and supporter of both RC33 and the BMS in which he recently published "Fifty years of survey innovation" (Volume 154, May 2022, https://doi.org/10.1177/07591063221088317) of which here is the Abstract/Résumé:
While completing my PhD in sociology, I did not anticipate spending most of my academic career researching ways to improve methods for doing sample surveys. At that time, I was dedicated to understanding community organization and how people adopt the use of new technologies. This article describes how becoming a new assistant professor just prior to a university crisis turned my academic interests away from organizational behavior toward more than five decades of research to advance survey methodology in step with technological changes transforming the world. This process also turned upside down my thoughts on how to do research. Increasingly I was inspired by the work of survey designers in government and private sector organizations who needed help with improving their survey designs. These experiences led to the creation of a series of innovations: telephone and mail data collection methods, mixed-mode surveying, tailored design for different survey situations, data collection over the internet, unified construction of questionnaires across survey modes, and understanding the differences between answers given to aurally vs. visually delivered survey questions. This sequence of research efforts led to the development and testing of web-push procedures that are now replacing the use of telephone survey methods throughout the world. Yet frequently and at unexpected times, my education in social organization and technology issues provided much needed guidance for thinking beyond the constraints of current survey methods and the possibilities that new methods could provide.
In professional terms, Don
was a Regents Professor, Department of Sociology and Deputy Director for Research and Development in the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC) at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, where he was a faculty member since 1969 (https://sesrc.wsu.edu/dillman/).
According to colleagues at the European Survey Research Association, "Don was a world-leading expert in survey methodology. His many great contributions include his milestone book "Internet, Phone, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method" (with Jolene D. Smyth and Leah Melani Christian; published 2014), which most of us have in their libraries. He is also known for his important collaborations with ESRA members across varying career stages. This includes the influential "International Handbook of Survey Methodology" (with Edith D. de Leeuw and Joop J. Hox; most recent version published in 2018) as well as the article "An experimental comparison of three strategies for converting mail respondents in a probability-based mixed-mode panel to internet respondents" (with David Bretschi and Ines Schaurer; published in the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology in 2023). Moreover, Don contributed to research published in the ESRA journal Survey Research Methods, for example the articles "Does Visual Appeal Matter? Effects of Web Survey Aesthetics on Survey Quality" (together with Taj Alexander Mahon-Haft in 2010) and "Visual Design, Order Effects, and Respondent Characteristics in a Self-Administered Survey" (with Michael Stern and Jolene D. Smyth in 2007). The last ESRA conference he could attend in person was in Zagreb in 2019, where the title of his presentation was "We Can Do Better: The Application of Theory for Improving Response Rates to Mixed-Mode Surveys". We will remember Don as someone who was always dedicated to "doing better" by designing the best possible surveys. By his great example, he encouraged us to do better, too. He will always be remembered fondly and his memory and groundbreaking contributions to our profession will live on."
The WAPOR (World Assocation for Public Opinion Research) mentioned that Don was "the recipient of the 2006 WAPOR Helen Dinerman Award for significant contributions to survey research methodology. Don Dillman’s work spans the entire field of survey research — from the mailed questionnaire to the internet surveys — all with a focus on how our respondents grapple with the questions we ask them. The need for accurate data collection crosses disciplinary and international boundaries, and the presentation of paper and internet surveys is important no matter the language (https://wapor.org/in-memoriam-don-dillman/).
Don will be dearly missed by all of us.
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* Karl M. van Meter BMS, Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique
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