G. Barrie Wetherill, known as Barrie, was born on 6 April 1932 and attended the Mundella Grammar School in Nottingham.

He was a Professor of Statistics at Bath, Canterbury and Newcastle Universities and specialised in industrial statistics with practical applications to process improvement. He revolutionised the attitude to measurement in chemical production and helped businesses focus on performance at all stages with his innovative statistical process control methods.

He was elected a member of the RSS in November 1953 and served on RSS Council from 1967 to 1976 during which time he was Honorary Secretary (1967–1972) and Vice President (1974–1975). He was an enthusiastic author and published widely in JRSS A and B, Applied Statistics, Technometrics, Biometrika and many other journals. He served on the RSS Series A Editorial Panel from 1961 to 1966, Series C Editorial Panel from 1963 being editor from 1965 to 1967 and The Statistician Editorial Board from 1978 to 1986. He was active in the Research Section Committee (1963–1967) and Statistical Computing Section (1982–1985), being Chair from 1985 to 1987. He was also interested in teaching, chairing the Committee on the Teaching of Statistics in Schools from 1966 to 1968 and organising a special issue of The Statistician on ‘Statistics teaching in higher education’ in June 1976.

He graduated with first class honours in Mathematics from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London in 1953 and also received his PhD in Statistics in 1957 from there. His first job was as a scientific officer at the Department of Operational Research in the Admiralty, Whitehall, London (1955–1958). However, he returned to academia and was swiftly promoted starting at Birkbeck College, London as a lecturer in Statistics, then becoming a senior lecturer, rejoining Imperial College in 1966 and becoming a reader in 1967. He was a professor of Statistics in the School of Mathematics at Bath University from 1968 to 1973 where he became interested in applied statistics. He moved on to be Professor at the University of Kent at Canterbury (1973–1984) where he developed close contacts with the research departments of local industry. He specialised in research with practical links, for example ‘Biometrical techniques to aid intercropping research’ funded by the Overseas Development Administration and ‘Statistical aspects of radioimmunoassay’ with Amersham International plc. He sought funds and set up the Applied Statistics Research Unit (ASRU) which started many statisticians’ careers and has served industry well, especially the health sector, for many years.

Barrie took over the chair of Statistics at Newcastle University (1984–1992) after the untimely death of John Anderson in 1982 and after the retirement of Robin Plackett that year. He continued his interest in practical statistics, setting up the Industrial Statistics Research Unit (ISRU) in 1984 as a result of his consulting work with Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Barrie was a brave proponent of the virtue of applying statistics to real life practical problems and overcame some resistance to raise its profile at Newcastle University.

This brought him into some conflict with the more theoretical members of the Mathematics and Statistics community, earning him nicknames relating to what would now be called his disruptive innovations. Nevertheless he persevered and was extremely successful in promoting the role of Practical Statistician—the forerunner of today’s Data Scientist and the rise of the ‘sexy’ profession.

Some members of the Statistics department were happy to be part of ISRU’s external consulting work, others were not so keen. After a while Barrie accepted an invitation from the Department of Chemical Engineering and moved ISRU there. He worked extensively with Don Brown and other statisticians at the Teesside ICI works and helped ICI make fantastic improvements in their productivity, efficiency and development costs throughout all their plants in the UK. He specialised in using Statistical Process Control Shewhart and CuSum charts and running statistically designed experiments.

After his retirement from the Statistics department at Newcastle University in 1989, Barrie concentrated on directing ISRU and acquired substantial funding from the Department for Trade and Industry for knowledge transfer partnerships (KTPs) with ICI, Boots Pharmaceuticals and other companies. ISRU expanded and has been extremely successful, securing European funds to promote the European Network of Business and Industrial Statistics, carrying out consultancy, continuing with KTPs and contributing to Newcastle University’s impact case studies. Barrie retired fully from Newcastle University in the early 1990s and went to live in Cheadle Hulme.

Barrie was a visionary for the importance of applying statistics for the benefit of business and industry and put his belief into practice with his very successful University based consultancy units. He was delighted by his sequential naming of the research units and also by living in each of the four corners of England: Bath, Canterbury, Newcastle, and eventually, Cheadle Hulme.

He was a prolific writer with a very clear style so that his statistics books were widely used and appreciated, running to several editions. His books were full of real life data and examples drawn from his extensive consulting especially in the chemical process industries at ICI, for example his book Statistical Process Control – Theory and Practice, 1990, written with Don Brown. His statistical books had the rare quality of readability; they were comprehensive and accessible whilst still treating in some depth many interesting extensions to theory in practice not covered in other books. They combined clear messages of the main facts with additional extra interesting details, often as worked examples or in footnotes making the books really useful as well as engaging and uplifting. These books included Elementary Statistical Methods, 1967 and Intermediate Statistical Methods, 1981.

He enjoyed working in the computer language APL (A Programming Language) and was a keen innovator. Barrie attracted some gifted researchers including Marie South, who used the Beagle computer program while developing her ground breaking PhD thesis on genetic algorithms. He also supervised Jim Rowlands and David Baillie in their PhDs on quality control. He composed some excellent short courses for industry including real data worked examples that appeared in his books, Sequential Methods in Statistics with Kevin Glazebrook, 1967, Sampling Inspection and Quality Control, 1969 and Regression analysis with applications, 1987.

Barrie was married with three children. In 1992, he set up a Christian charity called Wycliffe Associates (UK), and he and his wife, Marie, became the Joint National Coordinators. While living in a large property in Jesmond, Newcastle, Barrie and Marie kept open house and had many fellow Christians visiting and staying with them. They dedicated a lot of time to volunteering, especially in promoting Bible translation into many different languages. Barrie had been a preacher since 1957 as a reader in the Church of England and continued in retirement until old age intervened. He used his astute and versatile mind for a wide range of activities and had an extremely active and inspired life. He passed away peacefully on 21 February 2022.

G. Barrie Wetherill，被称为 Barrie，出生于 1932 年 4 月 6 日，就读于诺丁汉的蒙德拉文法学校。

他曾是巴斯大学、坎特伯雷大学和纽卡斯尔大学的统计学教授，专攻工业统计以及流程改进的实际应用。他彻底改变了化学生产中对测量的态度，并通过他创新的统计过程控制方法帮助企业关注各个阶段的绩效。

He was elected a member of the RSS in November 1953 and served on RSS Council from 1967 to 1976 during which time he was Honorary Secretary (1967–1972) and Vice President (1974–1975). 他是一位热情的作家，并在JRSS A和B、应用统计、技术计量学、Biometrika上广泛发表过文章和许多其他期刊。他于 1961 年至 1966 年担任 RSS A 系列编辑小组成员，1963 年担任 C 系列编辑小组成员，1965 年至 1967 年担任编辑，1978 年至 1986 年担任统计学家编辑委员会成员。他活跃于研究科委员会 (1963–1967) 和统计计算科（1982-1985），1985 年至 1987 年担任主席。他还对教学感兴趣，于 1966 年至 1968 年担任学校统计教学委员会主席，并组织了《统计学家》关于“统计教学”的特刊高等教育”，1976 年 6 月。

他于 1953 年以数学一等荣誉毕业于伦敦帝国理工学院，并于 1957 年获得统计学博士学位。他的第一份工作是在伦敦白厅海军部的运筹学部担任科学官员（1955-1958 年）。然而，他回到学术界并迅速晋升，开始在伦敦伯贝克学院担任统计学讲师，然后成为高级讲师，1966 年重新加入帝国理工学院，并于 1967 年成为读者。他是伦敦大学统计学院的统计学教授1968 年至 1973 年在巴斯大学数学系，他对应用统计学产生了兴趣。他后来成为坎特伯雷肯特大学的教授（1973-1984 年），在那里他与当地工业的研究部门建立了密切的联系。他专门从事具有实际联系的研究，例如由海外发展管理局资助的“生物识别技术帮助间作研究”和与 Amersham International plc 合作的“放射免疫测定的统计方面”。他寻求资金并成立了应用统计研究组 (ASRU)，该研究组开启了许多统计学家的职业生涯，多年来一直很好地服务于行业，尤其​​是卫生部门。

在约翰·安德森于 1982 年英年早逝和罗宾·普拉克特于当年退休后，巴里接任纽卡斯尔大学统计系主任（1984-1992 年）。由于他在帝国化学工业 (ICI) 的咨询工作，他继续对实用统计感兴趣，并于 1984 年成立了工业统计研究所 (ISRU)。巴里勇敢地倡导将统计数据应用于现实生活中的实际问题，并克服了一些阻力以提高其在纽卡斯尔大学的知名度。

这使他与数学和统计界的理论成员发生了一些冲突，为他赢得了与现在被称为破坏性创新有关的绰号。尽管如此，他坚持不懈，并在促进实用统计学家的角色方面取得了极大的成功——今天数据科学家的先驱和“性感”职业的兴起。

统计部门的一些成员很高兴参与 ISRU 的外部咨询工作，但其他人则不那么热衷。过了一会儿，巴里接受了化学工程系的邀请，将 ISRU 搬到了那里。他与 Don Brown 和 Teesside ICI 工厂的其他统计学家进行了广泛合作，并帮助 ICI 在其英国所有工厂的生产力、效率和开发成本方面取得了惊人的进步。他擅长使用统计过程控制 Shewhart 和 CuSum 图表并运行统计设计的实验。

1989 年从纽卡斯尔大学统计系退休后，巴里专注于指导 ISRU，并从贸易和工业部获得了大量资金，用于与 ICI、Boots Pharmaceuticals 和其他公司建立知识转移合作伙伴关系 (KTP)。ISRU 扩大并取得了极大的成功，获得了欧洲资金以促进欧洲商业和工业统计网络、开展咨询、继续与 KTP 合作并为纽卡斯尔大学的影响案例研究做出贡献。Barrie 于 1990 年代初从纽卡斯尔大学完全退休，并住在 Cheadle Hulme。

Barrie 是一个有远见的人，他认为应用统计数据造福于商业和工业的重要性，并通过他非常成功的大学咨询单位将他的信念付诸实践。他对研究单位的连续命名以及居住在英格兰的四个角落中的每一个感到高兴：巴斯、坎特伯雷、纽卡斯尔，最后是 Cheadle Hulme。

他是一位多产的作家，风格非常清晰，因此他的统计书籍被广泛使用和欣赏，运行了几个版本。他的书中充满了现实生活中的数据和示例，这些数据和示例来自他广泛的咨询，特别是在 ICI 的化学加工行业，例如他的书Statistical Process Control – Theory and Practice，1990，与 Don Brown 合着。他的统计书籍具有罕见的可读性。它们是全面且易于理解的，同时仍然在一定程度上深入地处理了许多其他书籍未涵盖的实践中理论的有趣扩展。他们将主要事实的明确信息与额外的额外有趣细节结合在一起，通常作为工作示例或脚注，使这些书籍真正有用、引人入胜和令人振奋。这些书包括初级统计方法，1967 年和中级统计方法，1981 年。

他喜欢使用计算机语言 APL（一种编程语言）工作，并且热衷于创新。Barrie 吸引了一些有天赋的研究人员，其中包括 Marie South，她在开发关于遗传算法的开创性博士论文时使用了 Beagle 计算机程序。他还指导 Jim Rowlands 和 David Baillie 攻读质量控制博士学位。他为行业编写了一些优秀的短期课程，包括实际数据工作示例，这些示例出现在他的书中，与 Kevin Glazebrook 合着的Sequential Methods in Statistics ，1967， Sampling Inspection and Quality Control，1969 和Regression analysis with applications，1987。

巴里已婚并育有三个孩子。1992年，他成立了一个名为Wycliffe Associates（英国）的基督教慈善机构，他和他的妻子玛丽成为了全国联合协调员。纽卡斯尔、纽卡斯尔、巴里和玛丽住在杰斯蒙德的一处大房子里时，一直保持开放的房子，并有许多基督徒同胞来访和住在一起。他们将大量时间用于志愿服务，特别是在促进将圣经翻译成多种不同语言方面。自 1957 年以来，巴里一直是一名传教士，作为英格兰教会的一名读者，并继续退休，直到老年干预。他用他敏锐而多才多艺的头脑进行了广泛的活动，并拥有极其活跃和充满灵感的生活。他于 2022 年 2 月 21 日安详离世。