Allan L. McCutcheon (1950-2016)

Allan L. McCutcheon, Emeritus Professor of Statistics and Survey Research and Methodology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), passed away on May 3, 2016. He was 66. A celebration of his life was held on June 4 in Lincoln, Nebraska (USA).

Allan had spent his last twenty years at UNL, having retired only last year as the Donald O. Clifton Chair of Survey Science. He was the founding director of UNL’s Gallup Research Center and founding chair of the Survey Research and Methodology (SRAM) program. According to his colleague Robert Belli, “Allan was instrumental in initiating both Master’s and Ph.D. programs in survey methodology, which placed the University of Nebraska as a premier location for expertise in this emerging field. Allan’s passion for the success of SRAM and the Center was matched only by his desire to foster success among the students.”

Allan was a dedicated colleague who advanced the discipline not only through his research, but also through his service to the field’s various organizations. When he moved to the midwest from the University of Delaware, Allan immediately became involved with the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR). His efforts involved serving MAPOR as its sponsorship coordinator, conference chair, and president. However, he was no stranger to either WAPOR or AAPOR, having been an active member of those associations even during his time at the University of Delaware.

Allan served AAPOR as its secretary-treasurer and chaired its education committee. For WAPOR, he served as secretary-treasurer, chair of the membership committee and many prize committees, and from 2000 until his retirement from UNL in 2015, as general secretary.

Given his statistical and methodological research interests and support for the next generation of researchers, Allan spearheaded the Janet Harkness Student Paper Award, a joint award offered by WAPOR and AAPOR that recognizes young scholars’ research in multinational/multicultural/multilingual (3M) survey research. Allan was also a key player in creating at MAPOR a student paper award for survey research methodology.

Within the United States, Allan had been a research professor at the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland, as well as a senior decision-maker and senior statistical director for the National Election Pool. His expertise also brought him overseas to Catholic University Brussels, Tilburg University, and the German Survey Research Center (ZUMA), and earned him recognition as a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Royal Statistical Society, and the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research.

A sociologist by training, Allan earned his bachelor’s at Iowa State University and his MA and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.

WAPOR extends its deepest sympathies to Allan’s family: his wife Lisa Crockett; daughter Jennifer Holm and her husband Dan; grandson Jeydon Holm; brother Bruce McCutcheon and his wife Jennifer; and another brother Mike McCutcheon.