Martha Farnsworth Riche ( ; born October 16, 1939) is an American economist who directed the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

from 1994 to 1998.

Early life and pre-census career

Riche was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She studied labor economics at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, where she earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1960. She stayed at Michigan for another year, earning a master's degree in 1961. Being female made her unable to obtain interviews at the banking firms she had been aiming for, so instead she worked on

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

statistics at the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1961 to 1976. In 1976, she married Steven Marston, an economist at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, and left Washington to move to

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named ...

. In 1977, she completed a Ph.D. in

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than F ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

. She writes that the subject is more strongly connected to her census work than it would seem, through "narrative structure" and "the story the data tell". For the next 13 years, from 1978 to 1991, she worked at ''American Demographics'' magazine, where she was one of the founding editors. She also became editor of another publication, ''The Numbers News'', where she documented numerical trends such as the declining proportion of white men in the American population. In 1983, her husband, then working at the Federal Trade Commission, was killed in a home invasion robbery in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

; Riche was shot as well, and ran screaming and bloodied to the house of a neighbor. She survived the shooting, and returned to Ithaca. In 1991 she became director of policy studies at the

Population Reference Bureau The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) is a private, nonprofit organization specializing in collecting and supplying statistics necessary for research and/or academic purposes focused on the environment, and health and structure of populations. The ...

, a non-profit organization in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Census

Riche was appointed by

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

as director of the census in October 1994 and continued there until her resignation in January 1998. While she was census director, Riche was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

in 1995. One of her priorities as census director was the replacement of the

Standard Industrial Classification The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) was a system for classifying industries by a four-digit code as a method of standardizing industry classification for statistical purposes across agencies. Established in the United States in 1937, i ...

, which she had used at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by the

North American Industry Classification System The North American Industry Classification System or NAICS () is a classification of business establishments by type of economic activity (process of production). It is used by government and business in Canada, Mexico, and the United States of A ...

. Although she cited only personal reasons in her resignation, it was seen as a sign that Congressional Republicans were winning in their fight to prevent the Census Bureau from using sampling techniques to correct for persistent undercounting of minorities and other underrepresented groups. Riche had been among a group of officials pushing sampling, but was frequently frustrated by interruptions from higher-ups in the Commerce Department when she would speak to Congress on the issue.

Later life

After her resignation, Riche went into private consulting and took a research faculty position at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

. Later, she became a fellow at Cornell's Center for the Study of Society and Economy.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Riche, Martha Farnsworth 1939 births Living people People from Ann Arbor, Michigan American women economists University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Georgetown University alumni University of Maryland, College Park faculty Directors of the United States Census Bureau Fellows of the American Statistical Association Economists from Michigan Clinton administration personnel 21st-century American women