Among those celebrating the symposium at the University of Otago on Friday were International Statistical Institute president Prof Helen MacGillivray, of Australia, and an Otago graduate, Families Commissioner Len Cook.
Dunedin-born Mr Cook was government statistician of New Zealand (1992-2000) and national statistician and director of the Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom, (2000-05).
The symposium was organised by Dr Matthew Parry, a senior lecturer and colleague of Prof Harraway at the Otago department of mathematics and statistics, and by the Box Plot network of Otago statisticians.
Mr Cook paid tribute to Prof Harraway as a long-serving and influential teacher of statistics, and colleagues throughout the world also made their own comments, in statements read out at the gathering.
Prof Harraway is a former president of the International Association for Statistical Education, and was praised as one of the leading proponents of statistics capability building among developing countries in Africa.
Dr Parry said he continued to have a strong positive influence on statistics education within the Otago department, had furthered the interests of statistics in global terms, and encouraged lively statistics teaching in schools.
Prof Harraway had also used statistics effectively in several interdisciplinary contexts, including health research.
