This was sent out to NYU Alumni.. wanted to share for those whos email addresses I do not have.. Dear Alumni, It is with deep sadness that I share the passing of beloved NYU Stern professor, Ernest Kurnow, who died yesterday at his home on campus. He was 101 years old. Prof. Kurnow taught at Stern for more than 60 years. A recipient of NYU’s Great Teacher Award in 1974, he brought his keen intellect, wisdom borne of experience, an optimistic spirit, and his profound love of teaching to generations of students, including one Alan Greenspan, and played a major role in the development our school. Prof. Kurnow last taught as an adjunct in the academic year 2009-2010. Prof. Kurnow first came to NYU as a student in 1945. He became a statistics instructor at NYU in 1948, and later moved to NYU Stern. Prof. Kurnow created the Statistics Department and chaired the department from 1963 until 1975, a period in which Stern changed its curriculum and focused on building full-time, research-based, MBA and PhD programs. In that period, he recruited many of the School’s most prominent professors and published a pathbreaking book in 1960 entitled “Statistics for Business Decisions.” By introducing sampling procedures to basic statistics, the book revolutionized the way the subject was taught and sold more than 300,000 copies. Prof. Kurnow was born in Brooklyn in 1912 and received his BS and MS in mathematics from New York City College in 1932 and 1933, respectively. Before joining NYU, he worked at the Works Progress Administration (WPA) teaching remedial reading and arithmetic. Five years later, he went to work as a statistician, and spent a year at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, the military base in Maryland where important innovations in computing and the application of statistical quality control were developed. Afterwards, he joined the New York City Board of Education, before coming to NYU. I had the privilege and pleasure of knowing Prof. Kurnow and, along with others, celebrated his 101st birthday last October. Those who had the good fortune to know Prof. Kurnow also know how much he will be missed. The family has asked that those interested in honoring Prof. Kurnow’s legacy donate to the Ernest Kurnow Fellowship at NYU Stern. With all good wishes, Peter Henry
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 03:25:39 +0000
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