Born in Berne, Switzerland on June 4, 1951, Dr. Flury began his career studying psychology, mathematics, and statistics at the University of Berne. In 1982 he earned a PhD in Statistics from the University of Berne. He spent two years from 1982 to 1984 as a postdoc in the Statistics Department at Purdue University and Stanford University. In the words of Dr. Flury, he took a "random walk around the world" from 1984 to 1987 with positions at Indiana University, the University of Berne, Stanford University, and Victoria University of Wellington. In 1987, Dr. Flury joined the Mathematics Department at Indiana University. He was appointed to Full Professor in 1995. For the academic year of 1989-90, Dr. Flury was Professor at the Seminar fuer Statistik at the Unversity of Fribourg, Switzerland. Upon returning to Indiana University in 1990, he started the Statistical Consulting Service at Indiana University where he spent three years as its Director. Dr. Flury also spent several summers as a Visiting Professor at the University of Trento, Italy and teaching a mathematical statistics course at the Scuola Matematica Interuniversitaria in Perugia, Italy.
In January 1999, Dr. Flury joined the Groupe de Statistique at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland as Professor of Applied Statistics.
Dr. Flury had a wide area of research interests, primarily in the field of multivariate statistics. A consistent theme throughout most of his research was to develop theory and statistical methods from collaborative problems with scientists in other fields, mostly biologists. Dr. Flury did extensive work in the area of principal component analysis where he developed the common principal component models which are now well-known among morphometricians. His book "Common Principal Components and Related Multivariate Models" (Wiley, 1988) gives a comprehensive review of principal components and the generalization to several groups. Dr. Flury worked on problems in many other areas such as discriminant analysis, finite mixtures, cannonical correlation, principal points, and self-consistency. He published over 70 research papers as well as two other books, "Multivariate Statistics: A Practical Approach" with Hans Riedwyl (1988 Chapman and Hall) and "A First Course in Multivariate Statistics" (1997 Springer).
Dr. Flury was a member of the ASA, IMS, SIAM, Biometric Society, Classification Society of North America and he served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Classification. He was a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.
Dr. Flury was so full of life. A warm, generous man, he was always thinking of others. He will be remembered for his wonderful sense of humor. Dr. Flury was a thoughtful and enthusiastic teacher who inspired many to pursue graduate work in statistics. As mentor and friend, he served as advisor to 14 former and current PhD students in his tragically short career. Many of his students are from Italy where Dr. Flury spent many summers teaching. He traveled extensively and collaborated with friends all over the world.
With boundless energy, Dr. Flury worked hard and played hard. For example, he would often cap off a full day of research and teaching with a long bike ride. More recently, hiking and climbing in the Dolomite Mountains became a favorite activity. He had just climbed his favorite trail in the Dolomites when he was killed.
Dr. Flury is survived by his wife Leah, his three sons Stefan, Andreas, and Christoph, and a brother Max. Dr. Flury was a bright light in the lives of many and he will be missed.
Thaddeus Tarpey, Alice Zoppe, Beat Neuenschwander, Pier Luigi Novi Inverardi, Marco Bee, Stefania Bartoletti, Leonardo Bottolo, Brunero Liseo.
This obituary appeared in the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Bulletin No. 4 of Vol. 28, July/August 1999, p. 251
His sudden, premature death leaves a large gap in the Swiss statistical community as much as in the international scientific and in his personal environment. We will all miss his personality full of joy, energy, and compassion.
The committees of the Swiss Statistical Association and its Section for Official Statistics.