Talk:Benjamin Drake Wright

Untitled
Please log potential additions, modifications, comments and questions here. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by WPFisherJr (talk • contribs) 18:13, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

I'm going to copy in the emails we've traded so far in the hopes we can move the discussion here. WPFisherJr (talk) 13:43, 29 June 2010 (UTC)WPFisherJr

Original Message
From: Ed Bouchard [mailto:ed@edbouchard.com] Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 10:05 PM To: Mike Linacre, William P. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D. Subject: RE: 1964-1965

Mike L:

Great to hear from you.

Including Nargis as contributing to the 1965 programs presented at the Mid-Western Psychological Association meeting is probably correct. Yes?

I see now that Ben includes her in contributing to Rasch programs in 1964(!) as you had it earlier. However, in interview with David A., http://www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt0.htm, Ben remembers writing the programs after the return from working with Rasch in Denmark in the spring of 1965 (!), which is what I was recalling.

In the interview, about Choppin's 1965 visit to Denmark, Ben recalls: "Bringing in a student that I valued made a difference. I had tried a few programs on my own between 1964 and 1965. But I did nothing before 1964, except to glance at his book. I wasn't dealing with dichotomous tests at that time and I wasn't the least bit interested in them. But in taking Bruce to Denmark, I must have already had something in mind. When Bruce and I came back to Chicago we got right to work. We wrote FORTRAN programs for all of Georg's algorithms: LOG (the linear log method he applies in Chapter V), PAIR (the pairwise method he proposes on page 171) and SYMFUN (his fully conditional algorithm based on symmetric functions) and we tested them against simulated data to make sure they worked for us.

"We must have worked pretty fast because we organized a Mid-West Psychological Association symposium in the fall of 1965 in Chicago." (Wright, Andrich, 1987)

While on the subject of conflicting dates: In the Key Events [rmt102] article, for 1967, Ben cites a presentation at the Psychometric Society, in Madison, WI, occurring in "March" of that year. However, in the Letter to Eddy Roskam [rmt231], [eight paragraphs or so down on the second page], Ben recalls the 1967 Psychometric Society meeting occurring in "June" of '67 (with "Bock, Lord, Tucker, Harris,..." attending). Richard Smith believes it must have been in June rather than March but an '70 article by Lord in Psychometrika also cites a March '67 Madison, WI Psychometric Society Presentation meeting. I'm thinking that the June date is likely the correct one. Do you have any idea? I've never seen a copy of Ben's '67 Psychometric Society presentation. I've been assuming that it was mainly a rehearsal for his October '67 ETS presentation.

Also, on the first page of that letter to Roskam, Ben recalls a December 1967 lunch with Fred Lord and Darrell Bock [6th paragraph from the top]. This would have been 3 months after the ETS conference. Any idea where this took place? The Quadrangle Club? In Princeton? Unfortunately Ben no longer recalls. Did he ever mention it to you?

Finally, I'm going to clean up the first paragraph of the Wiki page. Maybe late tonight, maybe tomorrow. The info is okay but I mucked up the syntax a while ago.

Ed

On Monday, June 28, 2010 5:47 PM Mike Linacre wrote: Subject: 1964-1965

Ed:

According to Ben's Chronology at http://www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt102q.htm

Panchapakesan was at U.Chicago in 1964, but Ben's first public exposition of Rasch methodology was in 1965.

Mike L.

Original Message
From: Ed Bouchard [mailto:ed@edbouchard.com] Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 04:25 PM To: William P. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D. Cc: mike@winsteps.com Subject: RE: Wright Wikipedia article (Mike please ignore prior msg w/ wrong address for Ed)

I just finished making some changes on the Wiki page. I would have uploaded the Orden/Wright photos but it looks like I will have to wait a few days. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Uploading_images particularly the paragraphs following Procedure to upload:

Procedure to upload

Only logged in users with autoconfirmed accounts can upload images (meaning that the account must be at least four days old, and the user must have made at least ten edits). If you do not have an account, or you haven't been autoconfirmed yet, please see Wikipedia:Files for upload.

You can upload an image by using the Upload file link in the toolbox, which is a link to Special:Upload. On most browsers, you will see a "Browse..." button, which will bring up your operating system's standard file open dialog. Choosing a file will fill the name of that file into the text field next to the button. You must also check the box affirming that you are not violating any copyrights by uploading the file. Press the "Upload" button to finish the upload. This may take some time if you have a slow Internet connection.

Note that some licenses, such as the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2.5, require that licensees attribute the work as specified by the copyright holder. After uploading, you may need to manually edit the "Licensing" section. For this example, you would add the correct attribution as a parameter to the Cc-by-sa-2.5 template, which would then appear as

My account was just made today so, is clearly doesn't meet the "at least four days old" requirement for uploading a photo. In the mean time, I have attached pdf versions of these 1960 photos (also have TIFFs). I'm not sure where the photos are from. They were scanned from Ben's collection but I didn't scan the info off the back. They were not in the Chicago Tribune article on Ben and Orden (which is a clipping without page numbers). The photos might be from a UC paper. Since they were made in 1960, would they still be under copyright protection? Can we simply declare them to "public domain"? That makes it easier.

Well, that's it for now. There were a lot of little changes through out. The first time I made them, Wiki didn't save my changes. I did it quickly a second time and forgot to make a note of my changes before hitting the save button. I apologize for that but hopefully the changes be obvious, or can be corrected.

Except, note that I changed the date of Ben's first Rasch contributions from 1964 to 1965, which was the year of the Mid-West Psych. Conference, also added Panchapakesan's name to the first programs (although she may not have been ad the ed school until after '65.

Ed B

On Monday, June 28, 2010 8:23 AM  William P. Fisher, Jr. wrote: Yes, Ed, please create an account for yourelf and then click on the Edit tab at the top right of the page. There's then a Save button at the bottom left, with a place to make a note about what you've changed. This note appears in the history list of changes and helps keep track of what's been done.

Thanks, wpf

First Rasch software?
At http://www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt0.htm, Ben says that, during his Spring 1964 visit to Rasch in Denmark, "Rasch's student, Gus Leunbach, took me through his Rasch model computer programs." This would then be the first Rasch software.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by WPFisherJr (talk • contribs) 17:42, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Format problem
The article says:
 * Benjamin Drake
 * Wright (born 30
 * March 1926) is
 * an American
 * an American

with really SHORT lines like that, and then you have to scroll down a LONG way before it says
 * psychometrician
 * psychometrician

I imagine this might change if I drastically altered the size and shape of my browser window, but still it shouldn't happen. Obviously the problem results from inclusion of photographs in the table in the upper right. I'd move the pictures to the body of the article but for the fact that one might have to know some things about editing tables to do that. Could someone attend to this? Michael Hardy (talk) 17:37, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

In my browser, the paragraph looks like this: Though I can understand wanting to have the format as browser-independent as possible, how far do people typically go with that? I originally had the full-height photo of Wright at the top of the box, which made for a narrower box, and I'd be glad to have it like that again, but I doubt if I could reproduce it as the whole thing has become so complex. William Fisher (User talk:WPFisherJr) —Preceding undated comment added 20:27, 29 October 2010 (UTC).
 * Benjamin Drake Wright (born 30 March 1926) is an American psychometrician
 * largely responsible for the widespread adoption of Georg Rasch's measurement
 * principles and models.[1] In the wake of what Rasch referred to as Wright's “almost
 * unbelievable activity in this field”[1] in the period from 1960 to 1972, Rasch's ideas
 * unbelievable activity in this field”[1] in the period from 1960 to 1972, Rasch's ideas

Death
Can someone update this page to indicate that Ben Wright passed away? I don't have all the info, but I received this email on October 31, 2015 from a Rasch analysis listserve:

"Dear Rasch measurement colleagues: I need to inform you of much sadness surrounding Ben Wright. Ben died last Sunday evening.  My understanding is Ben's family was with him, and his passing was peaceful. While we mourn this loss of a truly remarkable scientist and philosopher, many of you will also remember Ben as spiritual leader.  He had an unusual capacity to transcend the routine and mundane, while striking forth with his beliefs of importance and significance.  With an infectious capacity to inspire and motivate those around him, Ben led a remarkable life of scientific achievement.  Much that he accomplished remains decades ahead of the conventional mainstream. while this loss concludes the final chapter of Ben's life, a responsibility to continue his story of science and achievement now falls on us.  It is now our turn to step forward and take the ideas and concepts that he wielded so famously, and in a tribute to Ben's inspiration demonstrate their enduring significance. I have been informed by Ben's family that funeral memorial services will not be conducted. Therefore, your occasion for commemoration must be personal. Of course, I have extended our condolences to Ben's family. With profound sadness, Nikolaus Bezruczko" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.130.7.2 (talk) 13:45, 3 November 2015 (UTC) also mentioned on Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/raschmeasurement 152.130.7.2 (talk) 13:55, 3 November 2015 (UTC)Dr. T