How a Baylor Bear helped modernize the U.S. Census Bureau
The U.S. Census is mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, as the data it collects is the basis for determining representation in the House of Representatives. Early efforts were understandably difficult, given 18th-century limitations on travel and what we now call data processing.
Those efforts took a big leap forward in 1941. With World War II on the horizon, President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 named James Clyde “J.C.” Capt director of the U.S. Census Bureau — making a Baylor Bear the leader of the largest fact-finding agency in the world. Under Capt’s leadership, the Census Bureau took significant steps toward modernization, including establishing a permanent field staff for better surveying and taking the first steps toward introducing computers into the process for better statistical analysis.
Born in East Texas, Capt took a winding path to the Census Bureau. He attended Baylor from 1905-07, jumping into campus life with groups like the Erisophian Literary Society, Houston-Cowden Athletic Club, and the Oratorical Association, and serving as president of the Class of 1910 for a semester before leaving school and moving to New York.
Capt served in World War I (reaching the rank of captain), then built a dairy business in Texas, then helped coordinate Federal Emergency Relief Administration (later Works Projects Administration/WPA) programs — first in Texas, and later on a national level.
In 1939, he moved to the Census Bureau, tasked with hiring and organizing the 100,000+ enumerators and supervisors needed for the 1940 census. Two years later, he was named Census Bureau director, a role he would hold from 1941-49. Besides establishing a permanent field staff, Capt’s Census Bureau also explored new survey methodologies and quality control techniques and began development of the first commercial computer, UNIVAC, for data processing.
In August 1949, Capt resigned at age 62 due to poor health; he passed away later that month and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The U. S. Department of Commerce posthumously awarded him its highest honor, the Gold Medal, for his services.
Sic ’em, J.C. Capt!