Obituary - Vincent Barabba, Twice U.S. Census Director

Vincent Barabba, Director of the U.S. Census Bureau in the 1970s, has died aged 92. He is the only person to have been appointed to the role twice - once by a Republican President and once by a Democrat. He also held senior client side MR roles, at Xerox, Eastman Kodak and GM.

Barabba (pictured) was born in 1934 in Chicago, graduated from Woodbury Business College in 1954, and enlisted in the Air Force where he served until 1958. He then attended California State University, Northridge, and earned an MBA from UCLA in 1964. A career in research and statistics followed: he joined Datamatics, Inc. as President in 1966, then became Chairman of the Board of Decision Making Information. He remained in this role until 1973, at which point President Nixon selected him as Director of the Census Bureau.

He resigned the role in 1976 and became MR Manager for the Xerox Corporation, but three years later was back at the behest of Jimmy Carter's administration, after Director Manuel Plotkin resigned shortly before the 1980 census. He helped to guide the collection and tabulation of the decennial survey before resigning again in 1981.

Barabba served as Director of Market Intelligence for Eastman Kodak from 1981 to 1986, and for the next seventeen years was General Manager of Corporate Strategy and Knowledge Development at General Motors. His other roles included co-founder and chairman of Market Insight Corporation, service as a Commissioner of the California Citizen Redistricting Commission, and Chairman of nonprofit social, economic and environmental data corporation The State of the USA.

He is a Past President of the American Statistical Association, and his career awards included Induction into the Market Research Council's Hall of Fame; the AMA's Parlin Award; The System Dynamics Society's Applications Award for the best 'real world' application of system dynamics; and (at Market Insight) the AMA's Explor Award for innovative use of technology.

Thanks to www.census.gov .

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