Kenneth Robert Hess

Thinking of Kenneth and his wonderful wife Jill often and the great memories we shared throughout High School in Corpus Christi. Kenneth and I first met in 9th grade English class, where he was characteristically funny, smart and goofy. A wonderful person who so many were lucky to consider a friend. Jane and I were thankful both Jill and Kenneth were able to attend our wedding (picture attached). We miss him and will always remember his kind and loving spirit.

I worked with Ken at M.D. Anderson. He was a great guy, quietly effective, thoughtful but humorous, a tremendous asset to Biomath and so many trials. He also made an introduction to the Baylor surgeon who extended my late husband's life by two decades. RIP, Ken.

I was struck dumb, and that's saying something, to hear of your passing. I honor your curiosity, your truth telling and incredible integrity. I loved hearing stories of the kids when we worked together and admiring the Kingfishers. Comparing beards...

Bless you Ken.

I have been Ken's colleague for more than 20 years. Ken was a mystery to me at the beginning since he never accepted any of my lunch nor dinner invitations. However, whenever I wanted to discuss statistical or research questions, Ken always had time for that and was a wealth of ideas and knowledge. He could debate on any topic, and became one of my most trustworthy colleagues. He generously shared his massive library of statistical books and always was the first faculty to offer help when I asked for volunteers with collaborative projects or team teaching. Ken was a unique biostatistician with deep passion in helping everyone without self promotion. He was a quiet achiever and won everyone over with his modesty and genuine collegiality. The department sorely misses him every day!

This is really tragic. This hit me very hard and has made me ponder my own mortality. Ken was a remarkable person. He was really willing to help people when there was not much in it for himself. I am a prime recipient of his generosity. He spent countless hours with me as I was transitioning to a different career. His patience was limitless. Later, we worked together on more advanced topics, and I always looked forward to collaborations with him. He will truly be missed by the entire methodologic community.

It is such a sad and unexpected news. Sorry for the loss to Ken's family. As a colleague for over 13 years, I really enjoyed Ken's kindness and sense of humor. Ken was such a nice and pleasant person to have a chat with. He also helped me to get familiar with the field of early-phase clinical trial designs and protocol review processes. May Ken rest in peace. We will always remember Ken. My best regards to Ken's family.

I am so sorry to hear about the loss of Ken. He is a wonderful colleague. He is quiet and low key but he won our respect and admiration for his rigor and thoughtfulness in applying statistics to clinical trials to help patients. Ken will be deeply missed by his colleagues and friends.

I am so sorry to hear this sad news. Although I worked with Ken for two years and have not got chance to chat with him on many things, he was very quite and kind. He will be deeply missed by us.

Hongtu

I am so sorry for the loss to his family. Ken and I worked on a committee on the development of an online Biostatistics course for a couple of years, He was quiet, but kind. I liked his laugh and his thoughtfulness.

I worked with Ken for many years when I worked at MD Anderson, and I am so sorry to hear about his death. My best regards and sympathy to the family.

I am so sad to hear the loss of Ken. He was a thoughtful leader. I was a member of the AJCC Modeling Workshop Group in which he was one of the group co-chairs. He was always there to help our professions. On July 16, 2019, Ken wrote to me an email, asked for an extension to review a paper for JCO PO. He said that "My background makes me an ideal reviewer for this paper and I think it is an important paper." Even in his last few days, he still accepted my review invitation and just asked for an extension. We missed him as a scientist and a friend. Please accept my deepest sympathies and condolences to his family and friends.

I am so sorry to hear of us losing Ken. I worked with him while at MDACC. As a diagnostic radiologist, I had no experience in survey methodology. Fortunately Ken was patient with me and helped me bring important analysis of lung cancer imaging to publication. He was a wonderful person and will be deeply missed.

I am so saddened to hear the passing of my old friend and colleague Ken Hess. I have worked with Ken since the very early days of MD Anderson Cancer Center's cancer genomics program. Ken, a brilliant statistician, was also the pioneer in bioinformatics. He was the FIRST bioinformatician at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Together with Greg Fuller, Chang Hun Rhee, Janet Bruner, Al Yung, Victor Levin, and Ray Sawaya, we had so much fun being the first glioma genomics team in the world. Ken is the type of friends who do not say too much but you know you can always count him and trust him. I feel great sadness of this terrible news and also feel so blessed in having had Ken as a close colleague and friend for 20 years. I will miss you very much! RIP my friend.

I worked with Ken Hess at MD Anderson Cancer Center. I have a beautiful vivid memory of him talking about his then 10 year old daughter. He showed me a vibrant painting/drawing she had done and that he had in his notebook. I complimented the work and he smiled and said, "She's brilliant and talented just like her mom."