Their educational method was to respond to John's queries by providing clues and asking further questions rather than giving a direct answer, a characteristic that John inherited and used throughout his career.

The principal problems there were mathematical, involving ballistics, gun and artillery control, range finding, calculating leads for moving targets and so on. ... there are suggestion he may have been involved in code breaking.

John Tukey ushered in a new era of statistics. He questioned the Fisherian assumptions of regular uncertainty and gave us insights into the irregularity of the real world. His life's work consisted largely of discovering how to collect and analyse data. As he learned, he gladly taught us ways of coping with a world in which there was not only uncertainty but uncertainty about uncertainty. As an academic couple, John and Elizabeth Tukey achieved the highest standards for wisdom and kindness.

They show a remarkable uniformity of attitude characterised by a realistic recognition of the complexity of the situation, a consequent distrust of asymptotic theory, the use of standard statistical techniques as providing benchmarks rather than (say) precise confidence intervals, continual questioning of assumptions, emphasis on computational aspects, emphasis on ways of presenting the analysis, this presentation in ways familiar to the main users rather than in ways adopted in mathematical treatments, the early recognition of the superior qualities of digital devices for general purposes (as compared to analog devices) and a conspicuous fascination with new words and phrases, some of which have become established. There is, of course, also the introduction of new methods, some of which have proved to be important. These include methods for estimating spectra, spectra of higher moments, complex demodulation, methods for determining the magnitude and sign of initial impulses observed after transmission through a (more or less) fixed linear system and the Fourier analysis of the logarithm of a spectral estimate to discern echoes.

For a long time I have thought that I was a statistician, interested in inferences from the particular to the general. But as I have watched mathematical statistics evolve, I have had cause to wonder and to doubt. And when I have pondered about why such techniques as the spectrum analysis of time series have proved so useful, it has become clear that their 'dealing with fluctuations' aspects are, in many circumstances, of lesser importance than the aspects that would already have been required to deal effectively with the simpler case of very extensive data where fluctuations would no longer be a problem. All in all, I have come to feel that my central interest is in data analysis ...

... the usefulness and limitation of mathematical statistics; the importance of having methods of statistical analysis that are robust to violations of the assumptions underlying their use; the need to amass experience of the behaviour of specific methods of analysis in order to provide guidance on their use; the importance of allowing the possibility of data's influencing the choice of method by which they are analysed; the need for statisticians to reject the role of 'guardian of proven truth', and to resist attempts to provide once-for-all solutions and tidy over-unifications of the subject; the iterative nature of data analysis; implications of the increasing power, availability and cheapness of computing facilities; the training of statisticians.

John loves to work with others, and many have had the pleasure in participating in his genius. Variety and breadth mark his accomplishments. He works successfully on both large- and small- scale problems and on both practical and theoretical problems. ... He is always eager to respond to new questions, and he gives generously of his time and ideas.

Tukey ambled to the podium, a great bear of a man dressed in baggy pants and a black knitted shirt. These might once have been a matching pair but the vintage was such that it was heard to tell. ... Carefully and deliberately a list of headings was chalked on the blackboard. The words came too, not many, like overweight parcels, delivered at a slow unfaltering pace. ... When it was complete, Tukey turned to face the audience and the podium ... "Comments, queries, suggestions?" he asked the audience ... As he waited for a response, he clambered onto the podium and manoeuvred until he was sitting cross-legged facing the audience. ... We in the audience sat like spectators at the zoo waiting for the great bear to move or say something. But the great bear appeared to be doing the same thing, and the feeling was not comfortable.

... Tukey liked to play games his way to get people to figure out for themselves the things that he already knew. More than anything else, he liked the give and take of an argument, but he also expected his views to prevail, and they usually did.