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Roger Littlejohn
26 February 1955 - 6 March 2011
With great sadness
I say farewell to Roger, who died on Sunday morning, 6th of March, after a battle with melanoma.
Roger, as many of you will know, was a stalwart of the NZSA, making enormous contributions to our association. Roger was the Editor of the
NZSA newsletter September 2002-March 2006, President of the NZSA from 2006-8, and NZSA Webmaster January 2004-February 2010.
For the last few years Roger has been the ANZJS Non-Editorial Management Representative and on the Awards Committee.
I met Roger when I joined AgResearch in 2004. Roger took me under his wing and was a wonderful mentor and a fantastic friend.
With his cheeky sense of humour, his immense kindness and his seemingly limitless patience
Roger will be greatly
missed by all those who had the pleasure of knowing him.
Roger’s funeral will be held at 1.00pm March 9th at Mosgiel Presbyterian Church followed by a private cremation.
Messages of sympathy to Roger's wife, Annette, and his children, Jeremy and Tabitha, can be sent to 7 Haggart Street, RD2, Mosgiel 9092.
Vanessa Cave
"Statistics is a Cinderella
amongst the Sciences, cleaning, sweeping, bringing order, but rather ill-equipped for the Ball"
Roger Littlejohn, President's Column, NZSA Newsletter 65
You're welcome to provide a tribute to Roger on this page.
Email Vanessa Cave.
 A collection of photographs of Roger at conferences, meetings and events
through the years is being compiled by Harold Henderson.
To download a pdf [4.8 MB] click here.
If you've got some photographs to add please email copies to Harold.
 It is with sadness that we report that Roger Littlejohn died on the
morning of 6th March, 2011, following a battle with secondary melanoma, having just turned 56.
Roger Littlejohn was employed as a statistician with AgResearch (formerly Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries), based at the Invermay campus,
from August 1983 until his death. He was an expert in the analyses of time series and in the application of hidden Markov models, and made
major contributions in the analysis of hormone profiles and data on animal positions through time. He devised practical solutions to the
diverse range of problems that were presented to him and was greatly appreciated by his workplace colleagues. He contributed to over 200
publications.
He contributed to the wider statistical community in a number of ways, including being a committee member of the NZ Statistical Association.
Roger was the Editor of the NZSA newsletter September 2002-March 2006, President of the NZSA from 2006-8, and NZSA Webmaster
January 2004-February 2010. For the last few years Roger has been the ANZJS Non-Editorial Management Representative and on the
Awards Committee. He was a member of several conference and workshop organising committees, as well the board of directors for
the NZIMA Hidden Markov Models and Complex Systems programme. He also contributed a number of time series procedures to the
Genstat procedure library.
Roger was always ready to help and promote others, as can be seen in his mentoring of a number of project and thesis students.
He instigated and edited a festschrift for Peter Johnstone to celebrate Peter’s 65th birthday. His own contribution on
writing
workplans is a testament to his eloquence and humour.
Away from work Roger was an active member of the dramatic society, and of his church. He was a devoted father and husband.
He leaves his wife Annette and two children, Jeremy and Tabitha.
Roger will be missed as a colleague and friend by us all.
AgResearch Stats Team
 It is with great
sadness that I inform you of Roger Littlejohn’s passing at the
young age of 56 after a brave battle with melanoma.
Roger worked as a biometrician for AgResearch at the Invermay Research Centre (Dunedin, NZ) for nearly 30 years, and was an
expert in Time Series, contributing many procedures to the GenStat procedure library including DFOURIER, MOVINGAVERAGE,
MCROSSPECTRUM, PERIODTEST and REPPERIODOGRAM. Roger was a very practical and creative statistician finding
innovative solutions to analysing animal behavioural studies, one of the wide range of applications and research areas he was involved in.
I will miss his enthusiasm, enquiring mind, and his jovial and dependable friendship.
He leaves his wife Annette and two school-aged children, Jeremy and Tabitha.
David Baird
 I first met Roger when I was working
at Sydney University and visited Dunedin for the ICOTS conference in 1990. During the conference he took my PhD student
and me under his wing, as one of the local statisticians, showing us the sights and inviting us in to his home.
For me, Dunedin was an even friendlier place than normal thanks to Roger's kindness that week.
David Fletcher
University of Otago
When he was at secondary
school Roger stayed with us for two or three weeks while his parents were overseas. We remember with pleasure and affection his
quiet courtesy, his intelligence, his kindness to our toddler son, and his quirky sense of humour. In more recent years Shirley
has sought and enjoyed his company at statistical conferences.
We offer our deepest sympathy to Annette, Jeremy and Tabitha, to his parents Annette and Charles, and to his sister Iona and her
family. He will be greatly missed.
Shirley and Ken Pledger
 Roger was a
committed member of NZSA quietly but willingly doing a heap of work (often in the background).
He was always smiling with a keen sense of humour and a knack of making people around him feel comfortable.
He was such a regular attendee at
annual conferences that I'm having trouble reconciling myself to the fact that he won't be at the next one.
I am one of the many that will miss him - one of the well-known personalities of New Zealand statistics.
Haere ra Roger. Haere ra i te rangimaire.
Sharleen Forbes
General Manager, Statistical Education
Statistics New Zealand
Roger was a very well respected and
highly regarded contributor to the GenStat program and to the Australasian GenStat conferences.
He was always very personable and was willing to discuss and help with any statistical issues.
On behalf of the Australasian GenStat Users Association, I extend sincere condolences to Annette, Jeremy and Tabitha.
You are all in our thoughts.
Angela Anderson (nee Reid)
(Chair, Australasian GenStat Users Association)
 I'm very sad to
hear that Roger has left us. I remember him from his time in Canberra, at the ANU, but I've also
benefited from his helpful email communication in the years since then.
I can well imagine how much he is missed in New Zealand, from where his energy, enthusiasm and passion bounced to
Australia without any difficulty. And I can imagine too how terribly his family must miss him; I send them my deeply felt condolences.
Peter Hall
University of Melbourne
 It was very sad news
to hear of Roger's death, and especially that he left a wife and young children.
I did not know much of his statistical work, but I knew him through his contribution to the NZSA and through conferences.
He took over from me as NZSA webmaster, and was later President. Roger exhibited virtues which are perhaps considered old-fashioned.
He was hardworking, enthusiastic, gentle, good-humoured and modest. He will be missed.
David Scott
The University of Auckland
I would like to
add my voice to the many others, offering condolences, and paying tribute to Roger's work and qualities. I had known
him for a long time, but can only recall him as cheerful, good-humoured, always ready to offer his help and support to those who
needed it. Some of my most vivid memories relate to the meeting we had in Wanaka a decade or so back, when he was in charge of
bringing us provisions, in his van, and basically kept us going throughout the week or so of our meeting, a task he undertook with
the greatest goodwill toward the rest of us who benefited from his efforts.
David Vere-Jones
It is with great sadness to hear
the news that Roger has passed away. A respected and gentle giant amongst his colleagues and friends he is a great loss to the Biometrics community.
On behalf of the committee and members of the Australasian Region of the International Biometric Society, we extend our sincere condolences to his
wife Annette and two children, Jeremy and Tabitha.
On a personal note, he was a poet as well and composed a poem with that typical Roger humour after my talk in Marysville, 2008.
Young Mario from Perth was a teazza
Of Italian, life and statistizza.
He knew how to cook
Up a book, pasta, and chook,
GenStat-R code and a pizza.
A special thanks to
special man who travelled to all corners of the region to support biometrical activities.
Rest in peace.
Mario D'Antuono
President IBS-AR
Perth, Western Australia
Roger is someone who I
will always remember as generous - he was generous with his time he dedicated to NZSA, generous with his willingness to help me
as a new President and to help others, generous with his caring and fun personality, and generous with his enthusiasm for statistics. Roger,
I will miss you so much.
Jennifer Brown
NZSA President
 I met with Roger Littlejohn
on several occasions, at different times in different places, like Albany and Dunedin, but perhaps not as often as I would have liked.
Yet, he gave me a strong feeling that not only was I talking to an excellent statistician and a very kind person, but almost a friend, who is
willing to listen and can understand your interests and your concerns. Every year I was hoping that if not just now, but then on the next occasion
we will talk more and perhaps discover something together. This, however, will not happen now. It is very sad to lose such a person.
Estate Khmaladze
Victoria University
I am writing on behalf of all the members of the
Statistics Society of Australia (SSAI) to express our sadness and regret on learning of Roger Littlejohn's death.
I only met Roger myself very recently when we shared a table and some pleasant conversation at the official dinner of our recent
Australian Statistical Conference in Fremantle in December. I enjoyed his company and was sad to hear the news about his passing, so soon after that event.
Although I personally only had the pleasure of getting to know Roger in recent months, he was well known and respected by many members of SSAI.
Particularly in his contribution to the wider statistical community he had many interactions with SSAI and its members, and we are very appreciative of
his work as a member of the Editorial Team for the ANZJS, which is a very important product of both our societies.
I would like to extend our sympathies to his wife and children, and to all the friends and colleagues on both sides of the Tasman who will miss him.
Kind regards
Geoff Lee
President, Statistical Society of Australia, Inc
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