Herman Chernoff

Herman Chernoff, age 103, of Boston, MA, passed away peacefully on July 6, 2026.  Herman was born on July 1, 1923, in New York City, NY to Pauline (Markowitz) and Max Chernoff.   He married Judith (Ullman) Chernoff in 1947. After Max passed, Pauline married Louis Groh. Herman’s sister, Lillian, married Jack Bloom of Greenville, SC, both passing in 2010. Judith passed in 2023 at 98 years.

Herman graduated from Townsend Harris High School.  He then attended City College (NYC) and earned a doctorate in Applied Mathematics at Brown University.  He later taught Statistics at the University of Illinois (Urbana), Stanford University, MIT and Harvard University. Herman’s generous presence was felt throughout his life in the mentoring he gave to students, colleagues, family and friends.

Herman’s many academic accomplishments were honored by a symposium held at Harvard University in May 2023, just before his 100th birthday. Please read about this event and Herman’s contributions to the field of Statistics at the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Harvard University websites. Stanford University has also written a tribute. Links to these pages can be found below.

Herman also had fun with Statistics. While at MIT, he studied the likelihood of winning the Massachusetts lottery and people from all around the country wrote to him for numbers. And, while at Stanford, he developed a visual representation of multidimensional data using human cartoon faces, known as the Chernoff faces. He took visiting faculty to the horse races, to learn about applied probability.

Herman and Judy loved adventure. On one of Herman’s first sabbaticals in 1960, he took his family to London, England and Rome, Italy, returning by way of visiting family in Israel, colleagues in India, and important national sites in Thailand and Japan. Nothing was too large or too small for his attention. In London, Herman was not satisfied with pizza, so he learned to make pizza dough from scratch. He also helped his daughter, Miriam, learn the intricacies of British systems of measurement so she could be successful in weekly math quizzes.

Herman felt the happiest time of his life was with his growing family in California. Herman and Judy took their young daughters to the beaches of Northern California, to Yosemite National Park, to Disneyland and on skiing trips in the Sierra Nevada.

At 50 years old, Herman and Judy moved back East, to Boston. They quickly made themselves at home, becoming part of the Jewish and Brookline community. And they continued giving of their time to everyone around them, there and in Jamaica Plain, after their move to Springhouse.

Examples of Herman’s support outside of academia ranged from connecting a colleague with innovative cancer treatment to giving a five-minute consult on a Robert Frost poem to a good friend of his daughter. Herman read widely. Even in his last years, he wanted to understand Quantum Mechanics. And he recalled stories as widely spread as the Clan of the Cave Bear and the Count of Monte Cristo.

Herman is survived by daughters, Ellen Chernoff and Miriam Chernoff (late husband Stan Morse); by six nieces, their children and grandchildren and by many cousins.

Institute of Mathematical Statistics: https://imstat.org/2023/11/15/celebrating-herman-chernoff-at-100/

Harvard University: https://statistics.fas.harvard.edu/news/harvard-department-statistics-celebrates-professor-herman-chernoff%E2%80%99s-100th

Stanford University’s tribute: https://statistics.stanford.edu/news/remembering-herman-chernoff-1923-2026