A. Ross Eckler Jr. | |
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Born |
Albert Ross Eckler Jr. August 29, 1927 Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
Died | December 9, 2016 New Jersey, United States |
(aged 89)
Nationality | American |
Occupation | logologist, centenarian researcher |
Albert Ross Eckler Jr. (August 29, 1927 – December 9, 2016) was a logologist, statistician, and author, the son of statistician A. Ross Eckler. He received a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton University.
While at Bell Labs, Eckler co-authored Mathematical Models of Target Coverage and Missile Allocation with Stefan A. Burr.
Eckler was the former publisher and editor of Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics. He wrote a book on logology titled Making the Alphabet Dance.
He was also the author of The National Puzzlers' League, The First 115 Years, a history of the National Puzzlers' League (NPL). He and his wife Faith were married for more than 50 years, and were former NPL editors under the collective nom de plume "Faro" (with variant forms "FAro" for Faith and "faRO" for Ross).
Eckler's hobbies were genealogy and supercentenarian research. Eckler disproved exaggerated age claims such as those of Charlie Smith and George Fruits while authenticating others such as Delina Filkins (1815–1928). He died on December 9, 2016 at the age of 89.