The department expresses our sincere condolences to the family of Joyce Poole who passed away on June 4, 2026 at the age of 94. The below tribute is from Dr. Bruce Weir (Student, Postdoc 1965-1968; Faculty 1976-2005) who worked closely with her for many years. Readers can also view her obituary and leave condolences for her family who thoughtfully named our department as a designated memorial fund recipient in lieu of flowers.

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Joyce Poole was a long-term member of the Department of (Experimental) Statistics and was central to the success of the Quantitative Genetics program.

Although she was not hired as a Personal Assistant, Joyce acted as one for Clark Cockerham, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Statistics and Genetics and Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. Clark was not always the easiest boss but took care to see that Joyce received training to move from secretarial to data analyst status. In return, Joyce ensured there were always freshly sharpened pencils and yellow pads on his desk and that he had coffee.

Officially, Joyce was responsible for converting Clark’s (and, later, my) handwritten manuscripts into error-free typescripts. Not an easy task: every mathematical symbol required the insertion of a metal “typit” above the carriage of the typewriter that could be struck with any key and leave an inked impression on the paper, and an impression on the two or three carbon copies behind the top page. Even though we obtained PCs in 1983, it was several years before we got software for producing technical text. Manuscript figures would require calculation of several points of each curve and use of drafting curves for Joyce to draw smooth curves. Long before

electronic record-keeping, Joyce kept small tins of index cards, one for each manuscript, to track progress through the publication process.

The Department had a team of analysts, initially using large adding-machine style Monroe machines to perform calculations and this later became the SAS computing service for the department and faculty collaborators in the NC Experiment Station. Joyce became a highly efficient SAS programmer and produced numerical results for our theoretical predictions and for our data analyses. I am still impressed by my memory of her care and how she always paused before hitting “Enter”. I wish I learned her patience.

In 1963, NC State was awarded a seven-year Program Project from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of NIH with Clark Cockerham as Program Director. Clark directed renewals for a total of 27 years, and I was able to lead additional renewals for funding through 2005. At the time of initial funding, this award was the largest in the UNC system. The Program supported faculty, staff, postdocs and students in the Departments of Animal Science, Crop Science, Forestry, Genetics and Statistics. All progress reports, renewal applications and financial documents flowed through Joyce’s office.

The sheer effort in collating information, typing Clark’s syntheses, mimeographing the 100-page documents and adding reprints of all recent publications and then mailing to NIH cannot be overstated, but Joyce managed the whole operation and never missed a deadline. Even in a department with many skilled and efficient support staff, Joyce Poole was exemplary and worked with little public recognition. She was able to share the festivities when Clark was awarded the NC Medal of Science in 1976 and the O. Max Gardner Award from the UNC system in 1980. She was listed among the key Program personnel when we travelled to Washington DC to receive the USDA Superior Service Award for Scientific Research in 1990.

The widespread use of computing resources has meant that faculty are no longer supported by staff like Joyce Poole, and changes in funding mechanisms would make it difficult to hire them anyway. We might look back with nostalgia but we can certainly remain grateful for their earlier role in our progress.