Walter A. Shewhart

Walter A. Shewhart
Shewhart in April 1920
Born(1891-03-18)March 18, 1891
DiedMarch 11, 1967(1967-03-11) (aged 75)
Alma materUniversity of Illinois, University of California, Berkeley
Known forShewhart chart
Shewhart cycle
statistical quality control
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Wisconsin–La Crosse
Western Electric
Bell Labs
ThesisA study of the accelerated motion of small drops through a viscous medium (1917)

Walter Andrew Shewhart (pronounced like "shoe-heart"; March 18, 1891 – March 11, 1967) was an American physicist, engineer and statistician. He is sometimes also known as the grandfather of statistical quality control, inventor of the Shewhart chart and the Shewhart cycle.

W. Edwards Deming said of him:

As a statistician, he was, like so many of the rest of us, self-taught, on a good background of physics and mathematics.