The Baylor College of Arts & Sciences expresses its condolences to the family of Dr. Thomas L. Bratcher, professor of statistical science, following his death from an apparent heart attack Nov. 3 in Waco at age 70.

Dr. Jack D. Tubbs, chair and professor of statistical science, says, “Some of you had known Tom for only a short period of time and some of us have known Tom for over 25 years. We are all deeply saddened by the suddenness of his death and we will miss him dearly. Tom was a great friend and one who demonstrated a great and persistent passion for his beliefs — a passion that he demonstrated to the first year students in his insistence that they know and be able to articulate the differences between sample statistics and population parameters. His insistence that those taking the oral MS exams be precise in their language and behavior as a professional statistician. His ‘bulldog’ persistence that the Dallas Mavericks would be better this year, and that Tony Romo was not another Quincy Carter! And who could argue with his passion for his politics. I think my wife summarizes him best when she describes him as a gentleman — a gentleman who happened to be a Texan!”

Tubbs adds, “We are saddened for our loss. We grieve for his wife Nancy, his mother, his siblings, his children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren. We grieve for the loss of a friend, but we can rejoice for Tom since he was a man of faith and a follower and believer in Jesus Christ. The good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that Tom did not pass from life unto death, but rather in the suddenness of a single breath passed from the land of the dying into a Kingdom where one never dies or experiences pain, sadness and loss. For this reason we, too, can rejoice in our sadness!”

Bratcher earned a BS degree in mathematics from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1963, and earned an MS degree in statistics from Southern Methodist University in 1965.

“Upon completing an MS degree, I went to Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque with a Q clearance (an ‘if I tell you, I would have to kill you’ type of deal),” Bratcher wrote in his web biography. “There, these PhDs kept telling me what to do so I decided to get one of those PhDs my own self and did.” Bratcher received a PhD in statistics from SMU in 1969.

After receiving his PhD, Bratcher first taught at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, then at the University of Louisiana in Layfayette. “When offered a position with the Raging Cajuns of the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, the Crawfish Capitol of the World, how could I refuse?,” Bratcher wrote. “We started a PhD program in statistics and a new Louisiana Chapter of the American Statistical Association. Not wanting to be buried in the swamps, I returned to Central Texas and Baylor.”

Bratcher joined the Baylor faculty in 1979. “(At Baylor) I was a primary organizer of the Conference of Texas Statisticians,” he wrote. “Baylor hosted the 30th such conference in spring 2010. Then we began this PhD program in statistics which I…directed for 20 years.”

Bratcher was a member and past president of the Council of Texas Statisticians, a member and past president of the Southern Regional Council on Statistics, and a member of the American Statistical Association and the Sigma Xi Society. He was the author of numerous scholarly publications.