Robert Henderson (24 May 1871,
Russell, Ontario
The Township of Russell is a municipal township, located south-east of Canada's capital of Ottawa in eastern Ontario, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell, on the Castor River.
The township had a population of 16,520 in the 2016 Cana ...
– 16 February 1942,
Crown Point, New York
Crown Point is a town in Essex County, New York, United States, located on the west shore of Lake Champlain. The population was 2,024 at the 2010 census. The name of the town is a direct translation of the original French name, .
The town is on ...
) was a Canadian-American mathematician and actuary.
Education and career
Robert Henderson matriculated at age 16 at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
and graduated there in 1891 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. He spent a year as a fellow of the University of Toronto and then in 1892 was employed at the Government Insurance Department in
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
until he left Canada in 1897. From 1897 until his retirement in 1936 he worked for the
Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. There he was from 1903 to 1911 an assistant actuary, from 1911 to 1920 an actuary, from 1920 to 1929 the second vice-president, and from 1929 to 1936 the vice-president.
Henderson worked in the field of actuarial science, including
life insurance
Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...
and its history,
mortality table
In actuarial science and demography, a life table (also called a mortality table or actuarial table) is a table which shows, for each age, what the probability is that a person of that age will die before their next birthday ("probability of deat ...
s,
interpolation
In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points.
In engineering and science, one often has a n ...
,
cumulative frequency analysis
Cumulative frequency analysis is the analysis of the frequency of occurrence of values of a phenomenon less than a reference value. The phenomenon may be time- or space-dependent. Cumulative frequency is also called ''frequency of non-exceedance ...
, and
moment
Moment or Moments may refer to:
* Present time
Music
* The Moments, American R&B vocal group Albums
* ''Moment'' (Dark Tranquillity album), 2020
* ''Moment'' (Speed album), 1998
* ''Moments'' (Darude album)
* ''Moments'' (Christine Guldbrand ...
s. In 1914 he was a member of the Committee of the Census appointed by the
Actuarial Society of America to advise the
Director of the United States Census Bureau
The Director of the Bureau of the Census is the chief administrator of the United States Census Bureau (USCB). The officeholder is appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate and assisted by the Deputy ...
. In 1915 he performed the actuarial work for the establishment of the Church Pension Fund for the
Episcopal Church.
In August 1924 he was an Invited Speaker of the
ICM in Toronto. On 30 December 1924 he gave the
Gibbs Lecture. In 1930 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto.
Henderson served a two-year term as president of the Actuarial Society of America.
[ In 1910, he became a member of the ]American Mathematical Society
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
(AMS). He was a member of the AMS Board of Trustees from 1924 to 1928 and then from 1931 to 1940.[
]
Robert Henderson Fund
On 31 December 1940, upon his retirement from the Board of Trustees of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), he gave 1,000 U.S. dollars to the AMS, which the Trustees set aside as the ''Robert Henderson Fund''.
Selected publications
*
* reprinted from the Transactions of the Actuarial Society of America, vol. 8, p. 30
*
*with Herbert Norman Sheppard:
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderon, Robert
1871 births
1942 deaths
University of Toronto alumni
Canadian actuaries
American actuaries
Canadian emigrants to the United States