Donald Arthur Preece: A life in statistics, mathematics and music

Abstract

His father, Isaac Arthur Preece, was a lecturer (later the holder of the first chair) in Brewing and Industrial Fermentations at Heriot-Watt College, which was to become Heriot-Watt University. His mother, Dorothy Maud, née Banner, played violin (as a non-professional) in the Reid Symphony Orchestra, which was conducted by Donald Tovey.From 1945 to 1958 Donald attended George Heriot's School in Edinburgh, where he won medals in both Mathematics and French in 1956. He walked to school, and never forgot the day when the Clean Air Act came into force: for the first time, he could see the sea on his daily walk.He also learnt to play the cello, piano and organ. He was a cellist in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain under the baton of Malcolm Arnold during 1957-1958 and became an Associate of the Royal College of Organists in 1958.At the end of school he had to make a choice between his two beloved subjects-mathematics and music. He decided that he would never be quite good enough to make a decent living as a performing musician, and so studied