Samuel "Ed" Edward Nevius

Samuel Edward Nevus—“Ed”—passed away in Derwood, Maryland, on December 15, 2022, after a long illness. He was born on May 9, 1945, in Paola, Kansas, the youngest of four children born to Mary LaRosh and Samuel Nevius. He was predeceased by his parents, his brother George (“Wayne”), and his sister Dorothy. His brother Bill still lives near Spring Hill. Ed is survived by his devoted wife Anna Nevius and daughter Christina.

Ed grew up on the family farm in rural Kansas. He was active in 4-H and high school journalism. He attained his Bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1967 from the University of Kansas and avidly followed KU basketball throughout his life. He went on to graduate with a Master’s degree in statistics from Kansas State University, where he met Anna Bruce, a fellow statistics graduate student. Ed and Anna married on November 30, 1968, in Murphy, North Carolina.

After their marriage, Anna returned with Ed to Anchorage, Alaska, where he worked as the commissioned officer assigned as a statistician to the Centers for Disease Control at the Arctic Health Research Center.

Ed and Anna moved to Florida in 1971 where he worked as a graduate student at Florida State University; he received his PhD in statistics from Florida State in 1975. Ed and Anna then moved to Nebraska where he served as a professor in the University of Nebraska’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

In January 1979, Ed and Anna moved to the Washington, D.C. area, where he began work as a statistician for the Food and Drug Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. He dedicated the rest of his career to the FDA and retired as the Deputy Director of the Office of Biostatistics in 2016.

Ed fostered a life-long love of baseball and basketball, he enjoyed music, and he generously gave of his time to help young statisticians advance in their careers. He enjoyed being a parent and spending time with his daughter and her activities. Ed was an active member of the American Statistical Association and an active member of Mill Creek Parish United Methodist Church.

A memorial service for Ed will be held on Sunday, January 29 at 2:00 at Mill Creek Parish, 7101 Horizon Terrace, Derwood MD. The service will be on Zoom. If you would like to attend via Zoom, please email Anna at [email protected] and I will send you the link.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Ed's memory to the American Statistical Association (ASA) at ww2.amstat.org/giving. Ed appreciated that the ASA is an inclusive place for all statisticians and data scientists. If you are so moved, you can direct your gift to the ASA Pride Scholarship or any of the other options from the dropdown list on the donation page. For questions about donations, contact Amanda Malloy at [email protected].