David, F. N. (Florence Nightingale), 1909-1993

<p>Born 23 August 1909, Ivington, near Leominster, England; died 23 July 1993, Kensington, Contra Costa County, California, USA</p>

<p>Florence Nightingale David's father was William Richard David (born in Pullandraes, Tondu, Glamorganshire, Wales in about 1884) who was an Elementary School head teacher. Her mother was Florence Maude David (born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England in about 1882) who was also an Elementary School head teacher.</p>

<p>Florence Nightingale David was given the names 'Florence Nightingale' by her parents because they were friends of Florence Nightingale. In fact Florence Nightingale died a year after Florence Nightingale David was born. In 1929 Florence entered Bedford College for Women with the intention of becoming an actuary. She graduated in 1931 with a mathematics degree but when she applied to a London insurance firm for an actuarial job she was turned down. Although she was the most highly qualified of the applicants for the post, the firm were not prepared to employ a woman as an actuary. At this point her father encouraged her, saying that she would meet discrimination throughout her life and she would just have to persevere. She went to see Karl Pearson to ask his advice about obtaining an actuarial position.</p>

Florence Nightingale David, also known as F. N. David (born 23 August 1909; Ivington, Herefordshire, England; died 23 July 1993; English statistician; She was head of the Statistics Department at the University of California, Riverside in 1970.

Florence Nightingale (F. N.) David was an internationally acclaimed statistician and professor emeritus in the Department of Statistics at UC Berkeley. David's research resulted in advances in combinatorics, including a clear exposition of complicated methods. She studied the correlation coefficient and computed solutions of complicated multiple integrals using the distribution of the correlation coefficient.