D. J. Bartholomew

D. J. Bartholomew FBA
Born	6 August 1931 Oakley, Bedfordshire
Died	16 October 2017
Occupation(s)	Statistician, writer

David John Bartholomew FBA (6 August 1931 – 16 October 2017) was a British statistician who was president of the Royal Statistical Society between 1993 and 1995.^[1] He was professor of statistics at the London School of Economics between 1973 and 1996.^[2]

Career

Bartholomew was born 6 August 1931, the son of Albert and Joyce Bartholomew in Oakley, Bedfordshire.^[2][3] He was educated at Bedford Modern School^[4] and University College London, where he earned his BSc and PhD.^[1]

Bartholomew began his career as a scientist at the National Coal Board in 1955.^[2] In 1957 he became a lecturer in statistics at the University of Keele,^[2] before his appointment as a senior lecturer at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.^[2]

Bartholomew was appointed professor of statistics at the University of Kent in 1967^[2] before being made professor of statistics at the London School of Economics in 1973, a position he held until 1996. He was emeritus professor (pro-director) between 1988 and 1991.^[2]

Bartholomew was president of the Royal Statistical Society, 1993–95 (honorary secretary, 1976–82; treasurer, 1989–93).^[2] He was vice-president of the Manpower Society (1987–95)^[2] and was chairman of the Science and Religion Forum between 1997 and 2000.^[2]

In 1955, Bartholomew married Marian Elsie Lake, and they have two daughters.^[5] Bartholomew was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1987.^[2]

Religious views

Bartholomew authored several books defending the existence of the Christian God from a Biblical and statistical basis, God of Chance (1984), Uncertain Belief: Is It Rational to Be a Christian? (1996) and God, Chance and Purpose (2008).^[6][7][8]

In his 1984 book God of Chance, Bartholomew argued that the universe is "designed in such a way that chance had a role to play... Chance was God's idea and... he uses it to ensure the variety, resilience and freedom necessary to achieve his purposes."^[9] Similarly, his 2008 book God, Chance and Purpose argues that chance is part of the means by which God governs the world.^[10]

Bartholomew debated atheist physicist Victor Stenger on whether or not God is a failed hypothesis.^[1]

Books

• 1961: & S.E. Finer and H.B. Berrington Backbench Opinion in the House of Commons, 1955–1959. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
• 1967: Stochastic Models for Social Processes, New York and London: John Wiley and Sons. (German translation 1970).
• 1971: & E.E. Bassett, Let's Look at the Figures: the quantitative approach to human affairs), Harmondsworth Middlesex: Penguin books (Dutch translation, 1971).
• 1971: & B.R.Morris (eds.), Aspects of Manpower Planning, London: English Universities Press.
• 1971: & A.R.Smith (eds.) Manpower and Management Science, London: English Universities Press.
• 1972: & R.E. Barlow, H.D. Brunk and J.M. Bremner, Statistical Inference under Order Restrictions, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.
• 1973: Stochastic Models for Social Processes, (revised and enlarged) Chichester 2nd edition: John Wiley and Sons.
• 1976: (ed.) Manpower Planning, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books.
• 1979: & A.F.Forbes, Statistical Techniques for Manpower Planning, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.
• 1981: Mathematical Methods in Social Science, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.
• 1982: Stochastic Models for Social Processes, Chichester 3rd edition: John Wiley and Sons.
• 1985: Russian translation of Chapters 1–8 of Stochastic Models for Social Processes, 3rd edition, Moscow.
• 1984: God of Chance, London: SCM Press, Italian translation, 1987.
• 1987: Latent Variable Models and Factor Analysis, London: Griffin.
• 1991: & A. F. Forbes and S.I. McClean, Statistical Techniques for Manpower Planning, Chichester 2nd edition: John Wiley and Sons (Hebrew translation 2001, The Open University of Israel).
• 1993: & K.Haagen & M.Deistler (eds.), Statistical Modelling and Latent Variables, Amsterdam: North-Holland.
• 1996: Uncertain Belief, Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
• 1996: The Statistical Approach to Social Measurement, San Diego: Academic Press.
• 1999: & M. Knott, Latent Variable Models and Factor Analysis, London Arnold, 2nd edition:
• 2002: & F. Steele, I Moustaki & J. I. Galbraith, The Analysis and Interpretation of Multivariate Data for Social Scientists, Boca Raton, Florida: Chapman & Hall/CRC.
• 2004: Measuring Intelligence: Facts and Fallacies, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• 2006: (Ed) Measurement. Benchmarks in Social Research Methods, (4 Vols.) Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage Publications.
• 2008: & F Steele, I Moustaki, J Galbraith, Analysis of Multivariate Social Science Data, (second edition) Boca Raton, Florida: Chapman & Hall/CRC
• 2008: God, Chance and Purpose: Can God have it both ways? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• 2011: & M Knott, I Moustaki, Latent Variable Models and factor Analysis: A unified approach. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
• 2013: Unobserved Variables: Models and Misunderstandings. Heidelberg: Springer

References

1. Who Was Who, Published by A&C Black Limited, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014
2. "Bartholomew, Prof. David John, (6 Aug. 1931–16 Oct. 2017), Professor of Statistics, London School of Economics, 1973–96, then Emeritus (Pro-Director, 1988–91)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U6689. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4.
3. Royal Statistical Society, Obituary, David John Bartholomew, 1931-2007, J. R. Statist. Soc. A (2018), 181, Part 3, pp. 907–914
4. Bedford Modern School of the Black And Red, Andrew Underwood 1981; updated 2010
5. BARTHOLOMEW, Prof. David John’, Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008 accessed 18 August 2009
6. MacKay, D. M. (1985). "Reviewed Work: God of Chance by D. J. Bartholomew". Religious Studies. 21 (4): 622–624. doi:10.1017/S0034412500017959. S2CID 170862329.
7. Jordan, Jeff (1998). "Reviewed Work: Uncertain Belief: Is It Rational to Be a Christian? by David Bartholomew". The Journal of Religion. 78 (4): 643–644. doi:10.1086/490321.
8. Mawson, T. J. (2009). "Reviewed Work: God, Chance and Purpose, Can God Have It Both Ways? by David J. Bartholomew". Philosophy. 84 (328): 299–302. doi:10.1017/S0031819109000254.
9. Rolston III, Holmes (1989). "God of Chance by D. J. Bartholomew" (PDF). Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. 24: 109–115.
10. Wright, Terry J. (2009). "God, Chance and Purpose: Can God Have It Both Ways? By David J. Bartholomew". The Heythrop Journal. 50 (3): 542–543. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2265.2009.00484_30.x.

External links

• Portrait