Harold Hotelling 1895-1973

Abstract

Harold Hotelling was a leading mathematical economist at a time when that subject was in its infancy; he also enjoyed a world-wide reputation as a mathematical statistician. In both fields he was renowned for his theoretical prowess and as a most effective and caring teacher. His wide influence upon the professions is felt not only through his publications (a large number of which are seminal contributions), but also through his students, among whom one can count many of the next generation's leading economists and statisticians. Hotelling's career spans a most creative period in the disciplines of both mathematical economics and mathematical statistics, and few figures have displayed his originality and flair: fewer still have publication records that bear comparison. Most importantly, his published papers are today seen as the starting point of much contemporary research. Indeed, his name is familiar to a remarkably wide range of professionals, a range that runs from economists to statisticians but also includes educationalists and psychologists. In economics there is Hotelling's Lemma and Hotelling's Rule and in statistics he is particularly known through the Hotelling T2 statistic. In 1985 his widow donated the collection of Harold's correspondence and professional manuscripts to the Butler Library of Columbia University. It comprises a very large and impressive source of material for the historian of economic and statistical thought. This fascinating figure has never been the subject of any systematic study and the primary material at Columbia affords an exciting opportunity to examine the life and career of this most revered, distinguished and influential man. Harold Hotelling was born on September 29, 1895 in Fulda, Minnesota, of ancestors long American but originally of English and Dutch extraction. When he was nine the family moved to Seattle. The Church became a focus of the lives of the newcomers, providing both a place of religious worship and a most hearty welcome. Hotelling records that he was stimulated as a very young man by Methodist interest in social justice and race equality, and the family tradition of active concern with public problems. (This and other nonattributed quotations are from original