Good, Irving John

Irving John (Jack) Good, Virginia Tech University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Statistics, a founder of modern Bayesian inference, and a member of the World War II code-breaking team at Bletchley Park, died of natural causes on Sunday, April 5, 2009, in Radford, Va. He was 92.

Born December 9, 1916, in London to Polish-Jewish immigrants, he was given the name Isidore Jacob, which he later changed to Irving John. He was a child prodigy in mathematics and earned multiple doctoral and post-doctoral degrees at Cambridge and Oxford under G.H. Hardy and A.S. Besicovitch.

Dr. Good, who remained single throughout his life, was preceded in death by his father, Morris Edward Good, known in Yiddish literary circles as Moshe Oved; his mother, Sophia Polikoff Good; a sister, Sylvia; and a brother, Arthur. He is survived by a half sister, Yemaiel Aris; nephews, Raymond and Desmond Good, and their families of England; cousin, James Randall, of New York City; other relatives; devoted personal friend, Leslie Pendleton; and other close friends in the Blacksburg area as well as the academic statistical community.

A public memorial service will be held at a later date at the Blacksburg Jewish Community Center. Those who wish to honor Jack with a charitable donation may consider the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, 555 Madison Avenue, 20th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10022, Fax: 212-490-6066, or online at http://wwweliewieselfoundation.org/ in memory of I.J. Good.