John Joseph Deely

John Joseph Deely (January 13, 1933 – January 17, 2025) was an American-born statistician and educator who specialized in Bayesian statistics, specifically empirical Bayes methods and decision theory. He spent nearly three decades at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, where he served as the chair of the statistics department, before returning to Purdue University for the latter portion of his career.

Early life and education Deely was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 13, 1933. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, earning a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering in 1955. Following his undergraduate studies, he worked as an aeronautical research scientist for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor to NASA.

Deely transitioned to study mathematics and statistics at Purdue University, where he completed an M.S. in mathematics in 1958 and a Ph.D. in statistics in 1965 under the supervision of Shanti S. Gupta.

Academic career After earning his doctorate, Deely worked as a staff member in the Statistical Research Division of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from 1965 to 1968.

He was an active member of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (IBSA). He was noted within the community for his sense of humor, particularly for his "Deely Awards," which he presented at ISBA banquets to recognize humorous or unusual aspects of academic presentations.

Personal life Deely was a dual citizen of the United States and New Zealand. He died at his home in West Lafayette, Indiana on January 17, 2025, aged 92.