SSI Co-founder Tom Danbury Dies

US provider Survey Sampling International (SSI) is mourning co-founder Tom Danbury, who died last week while visiting family in Kansas City, Missouri.

He retired in the mid-1990s; his co-founder Beverly Weiman retired earlier this year.

Danbury is credited with many market research firsts, including commercially available RDD samples, SSI's sample screening service, 'LITe' (low incidence targeted) samples; and the SSI-SNAP online ordering system; and and was instrumental in developing MR industry news site WorldOpinion, in 1995.

Before co-founding SSI in 1977, he was Director of Marketing Research at Donnelley's Marketing Information Center for five years, and before this spent six years rising to VP and Associate Research Director at Foote, Cone and Belding. He was a faculty member at the Communications Research Center, Michigan State University from 1961 to 1966.

Danbury, who since his retirement has lived with his wife in Kilauea, Hawaii, died in his sleep on July 11. He was 71.

Known as a kind, generous, and thoughtful man, he always took a keen interest in those who were part of his 'family' - in which he included SSI employees. He survives his wife Rosalie, three sons and four grandchildren. The company says it is creating an annual scholarship fund in his name to benefit secondary or high school students who display academic achievement in an area of research.

SSI has headquarters in Fairfield, CT, and offices in Rotterdam, London, Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt, Sydney, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Toronto, and La Quinta, CA. Is it on the web at www.surveysampling.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

• Survey Sampling International
• All news
• MrWeb info