Richard A. Johnson

Madison-Richard (Rich) Arnold Johnson, age 88 of Madison, died peacefully on February 2 at Agrace Hospice.

He was born on July 10, 1937 in St. Paul, MN. to Arnold and Florence (Johnson) Johnson. Rich graduated from Johnson High School. He then went on to obtain three degrees from the University of Minnesota-BEE in Electrical Engineering, MS in mathematics, Ph D in Statistics. He met and married his lifelong partner, Roberta Anne Weinard (Bobbie), while at the University of Minnesota.

Professionally, Rich joined the University of Wisconsin Statistics faculty in 1966. During his 42 years on the faculty, he served 3 years as Department Chair. Rich was especially proud of the 25 Ph. D. students whose thesis work he guided. At his retirement conference, he said that they were the jewels of his career. Rich published over 125 technical papers. He is a coauthor of 6 textbooks. The best known is the highly cited Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis, which is in its 6th edition and is used throughout the world.

Rich received several prestigious academic honors during his career. Rich is coauthor of the paper that was awarded the Frank Wilcoxon Award for best applications paper in Technometrics for 1991.

Rich had the honor of being elected fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS), and the International Statistics Institute (ISI).

He is the founding editor of the international journal Statistics and Probability Letters and served as Editor and Chief for 25 years. This journal is well regarded worldwide and is credited with helping change the culture of statistics journals toward faster response times.

Among his services for IMS, Rich served as an Associate Program Secretary, Program Secretary, and member of the Council and Executive Committee.

In 2008 he was awarded the societies’ highest award, the Carver metal. Rich’s services to ASA included ten years on the editorial board of the J. Amer. Stat Assoc. and member of the Council. He received the Don Owen award in 2009.

At his retirement conference, Professor Johnson was presented with an award by James Evans, United States Forest Products Laboratory, which read “For 30 years of collaborative research leading to advances in statistical methodology that significantly enhanced the Forest ProductsLaboratory research.”

Rich’s career included extensive travel, giving invited presentations of his work and collaborating with scientists around the world. He and Bobbie enjoyed these journeys together, building lifelong friendships from the Far East to Europe to Africa. In retirement, they traveled widely as tourists.

While on leave at the University of Oslo, the experience of just stepping outside the apartment to begin cross-country skiing ignited a lifetime of enthusiasm for this sport. He played hockey throughout his childhood and enjoyed many years of coaching youth soccer and hockey on Madison’s west side. For more than forty years, many major family activities centered on our Spider Lake cabin. Rich, Erik and Tom loved fishing for Bass and Musky.

Beginning in graduate school and continuing until the pandemic, Rich’s chief joy and source of satisfaction was teaching Sunday School and, in later years, guiding small-group confirmation classes at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.

Recently, while reviewing his life, he proclaimed that of all his decisions concerning earthly matters, by far his best was to marry his beloved Bobbie.

Rich is survived by his wife, Roberta (Bobbie), his son, Tom (Karen), as well as many friends, colleagues, and former students from around the world. He was preceded in death by his parents, his son, Erik Richard, and his sister, Mary.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Friday, February 20 at 11:00 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5701 Raymond Rd, Madison. Visitation at 10:00 a.m. and will precede the service. In lieu of flowers, donations in Rich’s memory may be made to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church or Lutheran World Relief ,P.O. Box 17061, Baltimore, MD 21297-1061.

Cress Funeral & Cremation Services

3610 Speedway Rd Madison

608-238-3434