1900-1978

Born in Dayton, Iowa, in 1900, Gertrude Mary Cox took an unusual path for women in those times: she earned a master's degree in statistics at Iowa State College. She continued her graduate work in California at Berkeley and returned to her alma mater, where she was appointed assistant professor of statistics. Among her many honors, Cox was appointed Director of Statistics at the Research Triangle Institute in Durham, North Carolina, where she remained until her retirement in 1964. Cox was the first woman elected into the International Statistical Institute. In 1956, she was elected President of the American Statistical Association and in 1975 was elected into the National Academy of Sciences.