Roger Purves' Obituary
Services will be held February 25th, 11 am to 2pm at Chapel of the
Chimes, Oakland.
Roger Purves’s singular heart failed while on a walk near his Berkeley
home on Friday, January 13th, 2023. He had been ill for 3 years with
complications resulting from prostate cancer radiation treatments.
Roger was born in British Columbia, Canada in 1935. He went to high
school in Victoria (he hung out with the ‘bad kids’) and college at the
University of British Columbia. Though not an actor he joined the
Player’s Club for the scene, where he discovered Caroline, his beloved
wife of 65 years. He earned a bachelor degree in math, in a class of
three. Smart as he was, the other two were math super stars, which made
him always self-doubting —for instance, that his dissertation at U.C.
Berkeley, on game theory was original; it was, and well received!
After Roger received his Phd in Probability and Statistics, he joined
the faculty and often helmed Stat 2 — a large intro course, until he
retired in 2013. He was known for his ability to explain complexities in
direct language. His academic work was in probability, he was motivated
to write an approachable textbook —featuring New Yorker cartoons!—
because he believed that statistical data, with its power to steer
public policy, should be demystified. Statistics (with co-authors D.
Freedman and B. Pisani) is still used in universities around the world.
There were two intermissions to Caroline and Roger’s Berkeley years.
From 1963 to 1965 he taught at the Imperial College in London. They
moved to Lantzville B.C. in 1980 with two children in tow. Caroline
worked at the local hospital and Roger taught at U.B.C.
In 1995 Roger and Caroline moved to the Upland’s neighborhood, which
Roger loved for its variegated architecture, startling Redwoods, secret
stairs, and lively denizens. Roger was loathe to leave his comfortable
home—he invoked Kant who never went more than a mile outside his
village. London and New York did lure him away semi annually because of
the lifelong friends he’d made there; he also treasured his and
Caroline’s visits to his brother-in-law when he was stationed as
Canadian Ambassador in West Africa and Malaysia.
Roger was a gentle and loving father, as open-minded and innovative in
his parenting as he was in his teaching. He was the parent with whom his
childrens’ friends always enjoyed speaking.
He had a lifelong interest in computers, steered by his conviction that
the end user should be the design priority. He participated in the
Homebrew Computing Club in Menlo Park in the 70s, assembled a Kim-1,
bought the first Mac when it came out, and railed against Apple’s
deprecation of the Finder. He was learning the functional language Elm
up until his health kept him from attending the San Francisco Meet-Ups.
While Roger watched his hopes for personal computing founder on the
shoals of corporate ruination of the internet, he took solace IRL
pleasures: Dream Fluff doughnuts, Nick’s pizza, the Warriors winning
streaks and the Chronicle fetched daily from Star Market. He loved
movies —only in theatres! —and Shakespeare. His list of greats included
Jean Luc Goddard, James Brown, Bach, Samuel Becket, Jane Austen, the
Spaghetti Westerns, Mario Salvo and Stinson Beach. Although he avoided
contemporary fiction, he made an exception for Margaret Drabble.
Roger is survived by his wife Caroline, and his children Conan and
Miranda, his grandchildren Woolf, Eland and Ramona, his sister Vicki
Harrison, as well as his brothers in law Mike Harrison and John Bell,
sister-in-law Robin Pacific, daughter-in-law Bernice Ma and son-in-law
Adam Brebner.
What’s your fondest memory of Roger?
What’s a lesson you learned from Roger?
Share a story where Roger's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Roger you’ll never forget.
How did Roger make you smile?