It is with profound sadness that I give the news that Ron Hambleton, one of the giants in the field of educational measurement, passed away this morning. 

Ron was a great friend and mentor to so many of us, and made more contributions to educational measurement than perhaps anyone in our short history. Although best known for his pioneering work in item response theory, Distinguished Professor Hambleton made significant contributions to criterion-referenced testing, cross-lingual assessment, computerized-adaptive testing, test development, standard setting, and differential item functioning; among many other areas. He was President of NCME, the International Test Commission, and Division 5 of APA; and had won Career Awards from all these organizations as well as from the Association of Test Publishers. He was also a Fellow of APA and AERA, and a member of the National Academy of Education. Ron founded the Research, Educational Measurement, and Psychometrics program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he served as advisor and mentor to many of whom are now leaders in the educational measurement field. However, he was a role model and mentor to so many more than UMass students and alumni. 

So many of us credit Ron for supporting our careers and for the many contributions he made not just to measurement, but to our personal lives. Ron was passionate about measurement, and passionate about life. He was inspiring and cared deeply about people. He always said he couldn’t believe he got paid for what he did, because he enjoyed it so much. 

He was more than a great psychometrician—he was a great person.

For those of you who would like to make a donation in Ron’s memory, the Hambleton Legacy Fund, which supports UMass graduate student assistantships and travel, can be found at this link: https://minutefund.umass.edu/project/6373/donate?des_id=111492. 

More importantly however, We encourage you also to raise a glass in his honor and remember his warm, supportive spirit that touched so many of us and made the educational measurement world a better place.