Meier was co-author with Kaplan of the paper, published in 1958, that introduced the Kaplan–Meier estimate of the survivor function (see hazard rate). A graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio, Meier obtained his PhD at Princeton U (supervised by Tukey) in 1951. His career took him to Johns Hopkins U (1952), U Chicago (1957), and Columbia U (1992). Meier was President of the IMS in 1986. He was the COPSS Fisher Lecturer in 1992 and the Wilks Award winner of the ASA in 2004. He was elected a Fellow of the AAAS in 1980.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/13/health/13meier.html? Obituary and photograph.