born Nov. 18, 1901, Jefferson, Iowa, U.S.
died July 26, 1984, Tschingel, Switz.
U.S. public-opinion statistician.
He taught journalism at Drake University and Northwestern University until 1932, when a New York advertising firm hired him to conduct public-opinion surveys for its clients. He became a pioneer in the scientific sampling of public opinion, and his Gallup Poll, as well as other public-opinion polls, gained credibility after correctly forecasting the 1936 presidential victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt . Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion (1935), the British Institute of Public Opinion (1936), and the Audience Research Institute (1939).