Few people outside academic circles would recognise the name Bill Perriman, yet thousands of Australians, and many more people across Asia, have unknowingly benefited from a life devoted to mathematics, education and an unwavering belief that knowledge should be shared.
For more than two decades, Bill Perriman helped transform what was then the Western Australian Institute of Technology into the internationally respected Curtin University of Technology.
As head of mathematics and statistics and dean of science, he built far more than a department. He created a culture that attracted brilliant minds from around the world, encouraged innovation and established foundations still influencing Curtin today.
Bill was born in Victoria and gained a Trained Secondary Teachers Certificate in 1964, followed in 1965 with a bachelor of science, majoring in mathematics, both from Melbourne University. In 1966 he completed his masters in statistics, and in 1970 he graduated from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, with a masters in mathematics.
When he returned to Australia, Bill was appointed head of mathematics and statistics at Caulfield Institute of Technology (later Chisholm Institute) in Victoria before taking up the WAIT role in 1979.
Bill and Judy (nee Bunney) had married in 1964 and, with their two children, Colleen and Tracey, they packed up their lives, boarded the Indian Pacific, and moved to Perth.
Bill specialised in statistics at a level few reach. His research explored one of statistics’ great philosophical debates — Bayesian and frequentist inference — work that would later underpin much of his international consulting.
He was made a lifetime member of the Australian Mathematical Society and in the 1980s served terms as president of the WA branches of the Australian Society for Operations Research and the Statistical Society of Australia.
While mathematics can seem inaccessible to most people, Bill had a remarkable ability to apply it to the real world.
While mathematics can seem inaccessible to most people, Bill had a remarkable ability to apply it to the real world.
Governments, universities and industries across Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and India sought his expertise to establish mathematics and statistics programs, improve quality management and develop higher education systems. His influence extended well beyond lecture theatres, helping strengthen education throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Then came one of the most unexpected chapters of his career.
In 1995, while working at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Bill became a statistical adviser during the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
As DNA evidence dominated headlines around the world, he publicly challenged the way statistical probabilities were being presented, warning that extraordinarily small odds were being misunderstood and misrepresented. His comments attracted international media attention and demonstrated his willingness to defend sound science, regardless of the stage.
Despite these achievements, those who knew Bill remember something else. Former colleagues speak first not of his intellect, but of his kindness.
He recruited academics from around the globe, often offering young lecturers opportunities that changed their lives. Many recall being welcomed at Perth Airport, invited into his family home, helped to find employment for spouses and mentored through the challenges of beginning academic careers in Australia.
Several have since become respected professors themselves, crediting Bill for believing in them long before others did.
His daughter, Colleen, remembers a different man. To her, he wasn’t an internationally recognised statistician. He was the father who accidentally left the handbrake off his beloved Fiat, watching in horror as it rolled backwards down the driveway with seven-year-old Colleen still inside, frantically shouting instructions on how to stop it. Miraculously, disaster was avoided.
He was also fiercely competitive. Their regular 5km runs around the Canning River at Rossmoyne became contests with a modest $5 wager.
The Perriman family home was always full. Christmases were legendary affairs where relatives crowded around the table while Bill and his brother-in-law spent hours cooking, debating everything from politics to cricket and producing feasts that became family folklore. The conversations were loud, the laughter louder, and everyone felt welcome.
Like many lives, Bill’s was not without hardship. Retirement, divorce and declining health changed him. Yet those closest to him remember the happier moments: travelling the world, mentoring generations of students, remarrying twice, and never losing his curiosity about mathematics or life.
When Bill Perriman died in December, Curtin lost one of the architects of its modern identity. The mathematical community lost a respected scholar. Former colleagues lost a mentor. Colleen lost the man who bought her maths books for birthdays, unsuccessfully tried to teach her statistics at university, and still loved her after she failed the subject on her first attempt.
Some people build careers. Others build institutions. Very few build people. Bill Perriman managed to do all three.
William ‘Bill’ Perriman
Mathematician, statistician and educator
Born: Melbourne, 1941
Died: Perth, aged 84
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