Obituary: American Pollster Mervin Field

US pollster Mervin Field, who founded both the Field Research Corporation and public opinion survey 'The Field Poll', died in Marin County on Monday, after a brief illness. He was 94 years of age.

Field was born in 1921 in New Brunswick, NJ, and graduated from Princeton High School in 1939. While still at school, Field had a chance encounter with pollster George Gallup, who had just become famous for correctly predicting President Franklin D Roosevelt's re-election in 1936, when other polls had forecast a victory for his Republican challenger. Soon after, Field conducted his first poll, which measured student preferences during the school's senior class presidency campaign. He later studied at Rutgers University and the University of Missouri, while working part-time for Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) and Gallup in various capacities.

During World War II, Field served in the US Merchant Marine, but he also pursued a course of self-study of various survey methodologies. This led to him founding consumer and opinion research business Field Research Corporation (FRC) in 1946, and a year later he set up The California Poll. The latter, which is now known as The Field Poll, provides a continuing public opinion news service, publishing more than 2,000 reports on a wide range of political, social and public policy issues. In the mid-1970s, Field established non-partisan, not-for-profit public policy research organization The Field Institute, which took over The Field Poll's operations.

During his career, Field wrote, lectured and spoke extensively on many business and public policy issues, as well as various aspects of survey methodology. He also appeared frequently as an expert witness before House, Senate, and California State legislative committees, as well as federal and state regulatory agencies. In addition, he collected both academic and professional awards, including one from the American Marketing Association for his 'Field Index of Advertising Efficiency', and another for Outstanding Service to the Profession of Marketing Research. He was also the recipient of the 1979 AAPOR Award for 'exceptionally distinguished achievement'.

Field held positions at the AMA and AAPOR, helped establish the National Council of Published Polls, was a founding director of CASRO and a director of the Advertising Research Foundation.

Field retired as Chair of Field Research in 2000, but continued to serve as an adviser until his death. Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo described Field as 'the trailblazer in California', adding that his success had been rooted in 'savvy business skills, technical knowledge and the latest methodological practices, along with his dedication to the highest ethical standards and transparency'.