It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Dr. Frederick (Fred) Leysieffer on Tuesday, April 14, 2015. Dr. Leysieffer was in the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL, in the company of family and friends.

Dr. Leysieffer was born in Milwaukee and raised in Wauwatosa, WI. He received his B.A. in 1955 and his M.A. in 1956 from the University of Wisconsin, then earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1964. From there, he moved with his wife Annelise to Tallahassee, where he joined the Department of Statistics. He held many positions in the department, starting as an Assistant Professor in 1964, then becoming an Associate Professor in 1970, and finally serving as a Professor of Statistics from 1982 onward. He also served as the chairman for the department from 1981 to 1987, and picked up the title again from 1990 to 1993. Furthermore, his service to Florida State University included his role as the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1994 to 1997. His main fields of study were probability theory, stochastic processes, and sample surveys.

Dr. Leysieffer is survived by his wife (Dr. Annelise Leysieffer), his three children (Kirsten, Suzanne, and Beth), two sons-in-law (Dr. Mike Waltman and Jim Foos), and grandsons (Gus, Austin, Christopher, and Sean). He is also fondly remembered by his family here at the Department of Statistics.

For more information about Dr. Leysieffer, you can visit his webpage here. You can also find his obituary here.