On July 8, 2010, Professor David Blackwell of the University of California, Berkeley, passed away at the age of ninety-one.
In appreciation of this great mathematical scientist, the editor of Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Steven Krantz, decided to compile a rather extensive article consisting primarily of short contributions by a number of selected invitees. Krantz, being a mathematician, felt the need for a bridge toward the community of statisticians and probabilists. I had the good fortune to be invited to fill this role and to be given the opportunity to offer a token of my affection and immense respect for Professor Blackwell.
A limited number of invitations were sent to a selected segment of statisticians/probabilists. The response was prompt and enthusiastic. At the final stage, twenty contributions were collected of average length of about one and a half pages. The contributors were selected to represent four groups of people: former students of Professor Blackwell; former students at the University of California, Berkeley, but not Professor Blackwell’s students; faculty of the University of California, Berkeley; faculty from other institutions.
The heart of the present article is the set of contributions referred to above.
Deep gratitude is due to the twenty contributors to this article for their response to the extended invitations; for their sharing with the mathematical sciences community at large their experiences with Professor Blackwell; their reminiscences about him; and their expressed appreciation of Professor Blackwell’s work.
— George Roussas
