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When I first met Homer Jones, he was a third older than I, a mature man of the world in my eyes-though, as I now look back, I realize that he was only a callow youth of 24, in his second year of teaching. Yet, in the nearly half century since, that original image has seemed to me to remain valid: In one sense, Homer matured early; in another sense, Homer never matured.
I met Homer when I was a junior at Rutgers University, where he had just arrived as an instructor, having gone from graduate work with Frank Knight at Chicago to teach at the University of Pittsburgh for one year, and then on to Rutgers-if I recall rightly mainly in order to coordinate better with the professional activity of his wife, Alice Hanson. As low man on the academic totem pole, Homer was stuck with teaching, among other courses, insurance and statistics-two subjects that I doubt he had been exposed to before. At the time, I was planning to become an actuary, so naturally I took both these subjects. Only later did I realize how fortunate I was. Insurance would hardly seem a subject of far-ranging significance, yet Homer made it one. His quizzical mind, his theoretical bent, yet withal his Iowa farmer interest in down-to-earth practical matters, combined to lead us far beyond the dry, matter-of-fact textbook into the much more fundamental issues of Risk, uncertainty, and profit.
In statistics, Homer was clearly learning along with us, and that experience has always persuaded me that the blind can in fact lead the blind-or is the right aphorism that in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Because he was just learning, Homer could recognize the points of difficulty. Because he was so mature despite his chronological youth, he had neither false pride nor false modesty. He did not try to hide his limited knowledge of mathematics and statistics, but neither was there any question, on his part or ours, that he was the teacher and we the students.
The pattern of that course has characterized Homer ever since, with far less objective justification. Homers shrewd questions and critical evaluations belie the profession of ignorance and puzzlement. But the tactic...