Tom's Wishes.

 Yesterday (18/7/24)  we scattered Tom's ashes on the banks of the River Tweed in Kelso as per his wishes. It was a long journey and a very sad day. We still can't believe he's gone. We miss him very much.

OBITUARY FOR PROFESSOR THOMAS LEONARD (1948-2023) by Diego Andres Perez Ruiz for ISBA.

 https://bayesian.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2403.pdf

From the March 2024 issue of the ISBA bulletin  reproduced below:-

OBITUARY FOR PROFESSOR THOMAS LEONARD (1948-2023)

Diego Andres Perez Ruiz

diego.perezruiz@manchester.ac.uk

With profound sadness, we announce the passing of Thomas Hoskyns Leonard, a distinguished

and pioneering statistician whose contributions to the field have left an indelible mark. A retired

professor from the Universities of Wisconsin-Madison and Edinburgh, Thomas Leonard’s career was

marked by ground-breaking work in Bayesian statistics and a deep commitment to interdisciplinary

research.

Thomas Leonard’s academic journey began at Imperial College London, where he earned a BSc in

Mathematics with First Class Honours in 1970. Immediately thereafter, he completed an MSc in

Statistics from University College London with Distinction and a PhD in Statistics from the same

institution. His early career saw him as a Lecturer at the University of Warwick, where he co-founded

the Department of Statistics and the innovative MORSE (Maths, Operations Research, Statistics, and

Economics) degree programme with Robin Reed and P.J. Harrison.

In 1979, Thomas Leonard moved to the United States, joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison

as an Associate Professor, later becoming a full Professor. His tenure at UW Madison was marked

by significant contributions, including his work at the Mathematics Research Centre. He worked

on improving the Bayesian components of both the teaching and research programmes, alongside

Kam Wah Tsui and Michael Newton. In 1995, he returned to the U.K. to lead the Department of

Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Edinburgh, a position he held until 2001.

A true visionary, Thomas Leonard co-founded the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA)

in 1992, alongside Arnold Zellner and Gordon Kaufman. In 2013, he was elected as a Founding

Fellow of ISBA. He also served as a committee member for multiple statistical societies, including

the Edinburgh Section of the Royal Statistical Society, contributing to numerous interdisciplinary

debates and initiatives.

Thomas Leonard’s academic work

Thomas Leonard’s academic work was both prolific and influential. His research in Bayesian Categorical Data Analysis is considered seminal, and his contributions to other areas have had farreaching impacts. His work on multinomial shrinkage estimators drew parallels with the cryptanalysis techniques of Alan Turing and his assistant I.J. Good, showcasing a profound connection

between historical methodologies and modern statistical analysis. Leonard’s approach to density

smoothing was similarly inspired by Good’s work, underscoring the depth and innovation of his

research and beautiful ideas.

His seminal contributions to Bayesian Categorical Data Analysis have been highly praised by leading

statisticians such as Alan Agresti and David Hitchcock and further expanded upon by distinguished

scholars Nan Laird and Terry Speed. His publications, including his co-authored book ”Bayesian

Methods: An Analysis for Statisticians and Interdisciplinary Researchers” and his work on the history of Bayesian statistics, have been widely recognised. Together with John Hsu, Leonard developed the conditional Laplacian approximations, offering a computationally accessible method forBayesian inference that has significantly advanced the field and is widely used today.

His constant search for understanding, and his tenacity as a researcher, led him to develop some of

the most difficult and influential theories in Bayesian Statistics. With Hsu, Chiu, and Tsui, Leonard

co-invented the matrix linear covariance model, a development recognised as foundational by econometricians James LeSage, Kelley Pace, and Manabu Asai. In his 1999 publication with John Hsu,

Leonard presented innovative alternatives to the expected utility hypothesis in economics, challenging traditional theories of risk aversion and offering new perspectives on economic behaviour.

Leonard’s interdisciplinary work extended into family medicine, where, in collaboration with Richard

L. Brown, Orestis Papasouliotis, and others, he played a crucial role in establishing the Wisconsin

Substance Abuse Programme. His influential work in obstetrics, particularly his 1981 invited discussion paper with Jim Low and colleagues, transformed the prediction of fetal metabolic acidosis,

marking a significant advancement in the field. His collaborations in geophysics with Ian Main and

others have been recognised as ground-breaking, further illustrating the wide-reaching impact of his

research.

Beyond Academia

Beyond academia, Thomas Leonard was a passionate advocate for mental health, providing expert

testimony and evidence to the Scottish Government. He submitted a large amount of anecdotal and

statistical evidence to the Scottish Parliament regarding the widespread devastating side effects of

psychiatric medications and electroconvulsive therapy.

His commitment to societal issues was evident in his extensive work on the history of eugenics,

including a significant submission to the Commission of Inquiry into the History of Eugenics at

University College London (UCL).

Thomas Leonard’s legacy is immortalised not only in his contributions but also in the lives of the

students and peers he inspired and mentored. His passing is a great loss to the statistical community

and to all who had the privilege of knowing and working with him. Thomas Leonard was an extraordinary person, kind, gentle, and generous in ways that few ever have the privilege to encounter

in their lifetime. We extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.

His memory and contributions will continue to inspire and guide future generations of statisticians.

Tom, you will be profoundly missed.

UCL Obituary.

 https://www.ucl.ac.uk/statistics/news/2024/jan/it-sadness-we-share-news-passing-thomas-leonard-1948-2023

It is with sadness that we share the news of the passing of Thomas Leonard (1948-2023).

15 January 2024

It is with sadness that we share the news of the passing of Thomas Leonard (1948-2023). He obtained a doctorate from UCL Dept. of Stats (1966-1972). 

He was a co-founder of ISBA events. You can also find an interview with Thomas Leonard at: https://bayesian.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/1612.pdf

Warwick Obituary for Tom.

 https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/statistics/news/?newsItem=8a1785d88ce92c6d018d11a632681ece

Tom Leonard (1948-2023)

The department was saddened to hear of the death of Tom Leonard on December 18, 2023. Tom was one of the three founding members of staff of the Department in 1972, before leaving to take a position at the University of Wisconsin in 1980. He was influential in the development of the department's MORSE degree programme which flourishes to this day. RIP Tom.

Tue 16 Jan 2024, 09:42 | Tags: Dept, Faculty of Science

EULOGY FOR TOM by Scott Forster.

For his funeral held on 12/1/24.

We gather here today to remember our family member , friend, neighbour and colleague   Thomas Leonard, better known to those who knew him as Tom.

Tom was born in Devonshire in 1948 and grew up in Plymouth. He studied Mathematics at Imperial College London and later University College London. He worked and taught statistics at Madison Wisconsin from 1979 to 1996. Tom co-founded the renowned  International Society for Bayesian Analysis(ISBA) in 1993.

 Moving to working at University of Edinburgh from 1995, Tom  published two academic books in statistics (one in 1999 and one in 2001) before finally medically retiring in autumn 2001, aged 53. Tom was both proud of his time in academia but critical of its commercialization whereas he believed in the pursuit of knowledge for human advancement.

Tom was a seeker of truth and justice.  He was always on a spiritual journey and so moved from church to church and was an unsparing critic of where he felt Christians failed to live up to what was required of them. He moved from Episcopalian to Church of Scotland to Quakers before finally finding a home at Augustine United Church which he found to be welcoming and so the right fit for him.

He spoke truth to power whether in statistics, churches or society at large. He was a strong supporter of the LGBTQ+ community of which he was a part,  speaking out against gay discrimination by the US military on the Madison Wisconsin campus  in 1989.

He spoke out regularly in support of the disabled and neurodiverse and  very strongly in support of Palestinians, taking part in protests in solidarity with them . He worried deeply for the future of the world and urged us to act to change it.

His battles with mental health issues are well documented and motivated him to become a campaigner on the issue with him fighting for improved treatments  that went beyond  the medical model and him seeing mental health issues as a product of our social and political contexts.

As a retired academic, thinking, writing and reading was his bread and butter from his retirement until the last weeks of his life. He would love to debate and argue passionately on many topics from religion to politics, history to science, literature to philosophy.

Tom was a prolific writer. He co-wrote and published two academic textbooks on statistics and his  personal history of statistics was published by Wiley .   Alongside those he has a catalogue of numerous unpublished poems, essays, short stories, novels and a yet to be published  book of LGBTQ+ history .

It was through creative writing that Tom met his flatmate of 10 years Scott . Tom was in a writer's group Scott had begun attending. Eventually dissatisfied with what was felt to be its stifling intellectual atmosphere  they split off and both Scott and Tom co-founded a new writers group which they hoped would prove freer air to breathe and the group lasted a number of years.

Another aspect of Tom was that he had a long standing interest in the history of eugenics and its consequences on society. From the perspective of his subject statistics,  he was ashamed of its origins in eugenics.

One of his proudest moments was when Tom and Scott went together to University College London in 2019 to present the evidence they had co-wrote together to the inquiry into University College London’s involvement in eugenics.  

Until the pandemic in 2020 Tom was socially active regularly going to the Royal Statistical Society meetings in Edinburgh and making contributions including giving a presentation oh the history of statistics, going to a chess group, going to a reading group at the Botanic gardens and going to bowls and scrabble at his church.

With the pandemic he became more fearful and health conscious as many of us did and perhaps rightly so as his health woes increased considerably.

After 2020 he became more withdrawn, spending much of his time in the flat writing, reading and watching sports. Plymouth Argyll was his favourite team. World cups were major events for him.  

Tom was a compulsive player of chess and champion of scrabble. We would go over to   Julie's house at Christmas and New year and he was a serious and competitive player whereas Julie and Scott were more light hearted about it. He would brook no messing about or silliness. This wasn't just a game to him. He could be witty and charming, stubborn and difficult, eccentric and thought provoking. There will only ever be one Thomas Leonard. He was one of a kind. We will all miss him deeply.

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