Dr. Daniel Price Passes Away

Daniel O’Haver Price was born on a farm in Palatka, Florida, Sept. 12, 1918, and was the second son of Charles Henry and Lillian O’Haver Price. He graduated from Putnam High School in 1935, and received a B.S. from Florida Southern College in 1939. He taught high school science in Bartow, Florida, before going to graduate school in 1940. He received his M.A. in 1942, and Ph.D. in 1948, both from the University of N. C. at Chapel Hill. At the end of his active naval duty, he married Doris Carter on June 23, 1945. He became a Full Professor in 1951, and continued at Chapel Hill for 19 years, as Director of the University’s Institute for Research in Social Science from 1957-1966. He was a visiting professor at Harvard University (1950) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1957). During 1963-4 he was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He moved to the University of Texas at Austin in 1966; for 4 of his 12 years there was Chairman of the Sociology Department. In 1978 he went to UNC Greensboro, where he was Department Head for ten years. He retired in 1988, and moved to Jacksonville, where he married Marion Albinson Conner June 5, 1988. During World War II he was an electronics officer in the Navy, attached to PT Boat Squadron 17 in the Pacific, with service in Panama, Hawaii, Marshall Islands, New Guinea, and Mindoro. After the war, as a reservist, he taught courses in missile technology and consulted with the Naval Weapons Laboratory in Dahlgren, Va. He retired as a Captain from the Navy reserves in 1978. As a social statistician and demographer, he authored or co-authored seven books and more than 50 technical papers in professional journals. These included The 99th hour – a book which dealt with the now timely issue of limits to population growth, Changing Characteristics of the Negro Population – a description of changes in Black population characteristics from 1870-1960, An American Dependency Challenge – the most extensive public welfare study of the 1960s, When a City Closes Its Schools – a survey of the impact of the 1958 closing of Norfolk’s public schools to avoid integration, and Statistics for Sociologists – a standard textbook for several decades. Early in his career (1959), he was honored by being awarded the rank of Fellow in the American Statistical Association. His masters thesis, published in Social Forces, was the first article in the sociology literature using factor analysis. He was also a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Sociological Association. He was a consultant to many government agencies, including the Bureau of the Census, National Institute of Health, Social Security Administration, National Science Foundation, Office of Management and Budget, and Office of Economic Opportunity. His second wife was Marion Conner Price (1918-2010), a leading Jacksonville actress and television pioneer. His first wife, Doris Price (1921-2012), was the mother of his three children – Philip Price (polymer chemist in WV), Karen Price (Boston University, linguistics consultant), and Gary Price (Texas State Comptroller’s Office). Grandchildren are Bradford Price (Washington, DC), Megan Price (San Francisco), David Price (New York), Aaron Price (San Antonio), and Karen’s son, Indigo Dow (Boston). He is survived by a brother, Dr. Charles David Price (Winter Park) Three of his grandchildren have shown mathematical inclination – Megan has a Ph.D. biostatistics; David was ranked as the top mathematics student in the state of Texas, and is now teaching in NY; Aaron is at Trinity University, and doing mathematical geoscience field work in Canada. HARDAGE-GIDDENS FUNERAL HOME, 1701 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville Beach, FL.