Lloyd S. Nelson

Lloyd Steadman Nelson (March 29, 1922 – August 28, 2013) was an American statistician. He is known for developing the Nelson rules, a statistical process control methodology to determine when a process is out of control.

Early life Lloyd Steadman Nelson was born on March 29, 1922, in Norwich, Connecticut, to Marion (née Rogers) and Ronald R. Nelson. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry in 1943. He served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. He then graduated with a PhD in inorganic chemistry from the University of Connecticut in 1950.

Career Nelson taught for a few years.

Personal life Nelson married Frances "Fran" Betty Pallant, daughter of Margaret (née Roth) and Frank W. Pallant, in 1982. They had one son and two daughters, Peter R., Fay and Barbara.

In W. Edwards Deming's Out of the Crisis, Deming highlights Nelson's observation that "the most important figures that one needs for management are unknown or unknowable, but successful management must nevertheless take them into account".