William Weiss
June 12, 1923 ~ May 31, 2020
Obituary: William Weiss
William Weiss, developer of the first Stroke Data Bank for the National Institutes of Health, died May 31, 2020 in McLean, Virginia, just shy of 97. A World War II veteran, he obtained his B.A. in Statistics in 1948 from the George Washington University, and spent the majority of his career at the NIH’s Institute of Neurological & Communicative Disorders and Stroke, heading the Office of Biometry, from which he retired in 1984, as a member of the Senior Executive Service and a Fellow of both the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Mr. Weiss began his long government service career in 1948 as a statistician in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He studied food safety statistics and testified as an expert witness for the federal government in food testing/safety litigation. In 1962 he began work for the agency where he would spend the bulk of his distinguished career, at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. He rose through the ranks of the National Institute for Neurological & Communicative Disorders and Stroke to become the Chief of the Office of Biometry. In that role, he was responsible for the creation of the first Stroke Data Bank, paving the way for data collection on stroke around the world and which facilitated a flowering of research into the study of the treatment and prevention of stroke. His professional work included subjects ranging from potential treatments of multiple sclerosis to perinatal pregnancy issues. His published materials can be found in Neurology, Arch of Neurology, Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis: Trial Design, Results and Future Perspectives, and The Women and Their Pregnancies, among others. Aside from serving on clinical trial advisory and monitoring committees for multiple sclerosis, stroke, Guillian-Barre disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), he had consultancies with Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company and Berlex Laboratories.
Mr. Weiss was born June 12, 1923, in New York City, to Herman Weiss and Dora Rosen Weiss, both of whom had immigrated from Eastern Europe fleeing pogroms. He was drafted into the Army in 1943 and served at the Battle of the Bulge as a Private First Class at the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion, 346 Regiment, of the 97th Infantry, and was awarded a bronze star.
After his honorable discharge from military service at the end of the war, Mr. Weiss traveled and joined the bicycling and hiking groups Boot & Sprocket Cycling Club and the Appalachian Trail Club in the 1950s. He was, as many were, the subject of an FBI investigation under J. Edgar Hoover during the McCarthy Era due to having frequented what were considered “Communist” bookstores to obtain lower priced publications.
He met Barbara Anne Williams, a Lieutenant J.G. in the U.S. Navy, at a folk dance and they married in 1956. Together they purchased an old farmstead in Vienna, Virginia, where they raised four children and assorted pets and livestock. The couple entertained the neighborhood by opening their pond to ice skating and their hillside to sledding in winters. They were active in community inter-racial and immigrant relations through the Good Neighbors organization, the American Field Service interviews, the Town of Vienna’s International Fourth of July outreach group, and Democratic politics. He loved his slice of countryside and lived there until a few months before his death. A family man through and through, Mr. Weiss was close to his brothers and many of his cousins throughout his life. He was at his happiest patting his Newfoundland dog, Snoopy, cracking silly jokes with his wife and children on their annual summer vacations “down east” in Maine or in Prince Edward Island, Canada. He was a wonderful father and is sorely missed by his children.
Preceded in death by his parents, his wife, and his brother, Harold Weiss (Marilyn, also dec.), Mr. Weiss is survived by his children Robin Baxter (William), Linda Baskerville, Heidi Weiss, and Christopher Weiss; grandchildren: Alice (Matthew), Margaret “Molly” Harman, Caroline Harman, Olivia Baskerville, Charlotte Baskerville, Lucas Weiss, Elora “Elle” Weiss, Erin Baxter, and Brendan (Karen) Baxter; as well as great grandchildren Helen, Aurora Hartley, Rune Hartley, Kai Hartley, Finley Baxter, and Archer “Archie” Baxter. He is also survived by his younger brother, Theodore Weiss, and nephews Paul Weiss, David Weiss, Kippen Weiss, and Josh Weiss.
William Weiss, developer of the first Stroke Data Bank for the National Institutes of Health, died May 31, 2020 in McLean, Virginia, just shy of 97. A World War II veteran, he obtained his B.A. in Statistics in 1948 from the George Washington University, and spent the majority of his career at the NIH’s Institute of Neurological & Communicative Disorders and Stroke, heading the Office of Biometry, from which he retired in 1984, as a member of the Senior Executive Service and a Fellow of both the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Mr. Weiss began his long government service career in 1948 as a statistician in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He studied food safety statistics and testified as an expert witness for the federal government in food testing/safety litigation. In 1962 he began work for the agency where he would spend the bulk of his distinguished career, at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. He rose through the ranks of the National Institute for Neurological & Communicative Disorders and Stroke to become the Chief of the Office of Biometry. In that role, he was responsible for the creation of the first Stroke Data Bank, paving the way for data collection on stroke around the world and which facilitated a flowering of research into the study of the treatment and prevention of stroke. His professional work included subjects ranging from potential treatments of multiple sclerosis to perinatal pregnancy issues. His published materials can be found in Neurology, Arch of Neurology, Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis: Trial Design, Results and Future Perspectives, and The Women and Their Pregnancies, among others. Aside from serving on clinical trial advisory and monitoring committees for multiple sclerosis, stroke, Guillian-Barre disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), he had consultancies with Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company and Berlex Laboratories.
Mr. Weiss was born June 12, 1923, in New York City, to Herman Weiss and Dora Rosen Weiss, both of whom had immigrated from Eastern Europe fleeing pogroms. He was drafted into the Army in 1943 and served at the Battle of the Bulge as a Private First Class at the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion, 346 Regiment, of the 97th Infantry, and was awarded a bronze star.
After his honorable discharge from military service at the end of the war, Mr. Weiss traveled and joined the bicycling and hiking groups Boot & Sprocket Cycling Club and the Appalachian Trail Club in the 1950s. He was, as many were, the subject of an FBI investigation under J. Edgar Hoover during the McCarthy Era due to having frequented what were considered “Communist” bookstores to obtain lower priced publications.
He met Barbara Anne Williams, a Lieutenant J.G. in the U.S. Navy, at a folk dance and they married in 1956. Together they purchased an old farmstead in Vienna, Virginia, where they raised four children and assorted pets and livestock. The couple entertained the neighborhood by opening their pond to ice skating and their hillside to sledding in winters. They were active in community inter-racial and immigrant relations through the Good Neighbors organization, the American Field Service interviews, the Town of Vienna’s International Fourth of July outreach group, and Democratic politics. He loved his slice of countryside and lived there until a few months before his death. A family man through and through, Mr. Weiss was close to his brothers and many of his cousins throughout his life. He was at his happiest patting his Newfoundland dog, Snoopy, cracking silly jokes with his wife and children on their annual summer vacations “down east” in Maine or in Prince Edward Island, Canada. He was a wonderful father and is sorely missed by his children.
Preceded in death by his parents, his wife, and his brother, Harold Weiss (Marilyn, also dec.), Mr. Weiss is survived by his children Robin Baxter (William), Linda Baskerville, Heidi Weiss, and Christopher Weiss; grandchildren: Alice (Matthew), Margaret “Molly” Harman, Caroline Harman, Olivia Baskerville, Charlotte Baskerville, Lucas Weiss, Elora “Elle” Weiss, Erin Baxter, and Brendan (Karen) Baxter; as well as great grandchildren Helen, Aurora Hartley, Rune Hartley, Kai Hartley, Finley Baxter, and Archer “Archie” Baxter. He is also survived by his younger brother, Theodore Weiss, and nephews Paul Weiss, David Weiss, Kippen Weiss, and Josh Weiss.
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