Camilo Dagum (August 11, 1925 - November 5, 2005) was one of the leading scholars in Economics and Statistics in the 20th century - a period considered to be the Golden Era for these two sciences. Camilo Dagum was born in Rosario de Lerma, a small rural town in Salta, Argentina. He grew up during the Great Depression and bore witness to the widespread poverty, deprivation and illness common at the time. From this childhood experience, he developed a great sense of social responsibility and concern for the less privileged, which he displayed throughout his scientific career. He was the fifth son of Orthodox Christians, Alexander Dagum and Nazira Hakim. His highly educated parents, originally from Hama, Syria, immigrated to Argentina in 1912 during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. His elementary and high school education took place in Salta, Argentina.

Camilo Dagum's doctoral thesis from the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the National University of Córdoba was approved with the highest honor. He received a Gold Medal from the Argentine Army in 1948 and the Medal Collège de France in 1971. He was bestowed Doctor Honoris Causa degrees by the University of Bologna (1988), University of Montpellier I (1998), National University of Córdoba (1988), and the University of Naples "Parthenope" (2005).

Camilo Dagum's career as a university teacher spanned more than fifty years. From 1949-1966, he was associated with the National University of Córdoba, rising from Research Associate in 1949 to Full Professor in 1956, and finally elected Dean of the Faculty in 1962. From 1966-68, he was Visiting Senior Researcher at Princeton University and in 1968-69 a Visiting Professor at IEDES, University of Paris. From 1968-70, he served as Full Professor and Chairman at the National University of Mexico and in 1970-72 was Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa. The following 20 years, from 1972-91, he was Full Professor at the (bilingual) University of Ottawa. Mandatory retirement forced him to leave Ottawa and continue his academic career in Italy, first as Professor at the University of Milan and from 1994 to 2000 at the University of Bologna. He remained associated with the latter till his death in 2005.

Camilo Dagum was elected to the membership of the International Statistical Institute in 1959; his sponsors were world renowned statisticians: Corrado Gini, Maurice Fréchet, Herman Wold, and Carlos Dieulefait. He was Founder and President of the Argentine Statistical Society; an Honorary Fellow of the International Multidispliciplinary Science Institute; member of the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Statistical Association, the Italian Statistical Society and several others.

Professor Dagum published 12 books and over 210 peer reviewed articles covering a great variety of diverse interests, probability theory and mathematical statistics, index numbers, scientific model building, multidimensional random variables, transvariation, inflation, decision functions and models. He was the consummate eclectic academic. His scientific interests covered numerous fields including Economics, Econometrics, Philosophy of Science, Income and Wealth Distributions, Inequality, Poverty and Human Capital. He wrote pioneering and seminal articles in the last four topics, creating new research paths in these areas. Today, he is unquestionably the most prominent world authority in theory and applications of income distributions. His outstanding erudition, clarity of exposition in at least four European languages and attention to details were truly admirable.

Camilo Dagum was actively involved in the organization of international scientific conferences and workshops, his last being the one organized jointly with Professors A. Lemmi and Samuel Kotz held at the University of Siena in May of 2005 in memory of two prominent economists/statisticians - Max O. Lorenz and Corrado Gini. In the same month, he was awarded together with his brilliant and devoted wife of 47 years, Professor Estela Bee Dagum, the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Naples "Parthenope". These strenuous activities just a few short months before his unexpected demise are a testimony to his selfless devotion and dedication to science and society.

Camilo Dagum was a friendly, optimistic and tolerant person - always ready to assist less fortunate individuals. His kindness, even temper, discipline, hard work and goodwill to his fellow man will remain a lifelong inspiration for students and colleagues.

References

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International Statistical Institute, Newsletter Volume 30, No. 1 (88) 2006
http://isi.cbs.nl/NLet/NLet061.htm#05InMemoriam