17-03  Robert R. Coveyou

Not generally a modest man, Bob Coveyou was modest about his contributions to this group, although K.Z. Morgan, the "Father of Health Physics" later described Bob's knowledge of mathematics as crucial to the early work of the group.

After the War, Bob returned briefly to Chicago to finish his undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Chicago, and then in the next year, received his M.S. in Math from the University of Tennessee, all while employed at X-10 (Oak Ridge National Laboratory). He spent the remainder of his career at ORNL in several divisions, always as a research mathematician. An expert in pseudo-random number generators, today he is probably best known for the title of an article published in 1970 which has become a favorite e-mail tag line of mathematicians: "Random Number Generation is too important to be left to chance."

Bob also was very active in the civil rights movement in Oak Ridge in the 1950's and 1960's and he was an excellent tournament chess player, and was Tennessee State Champion eight times.