GALLUP, GEORGE (HORACE)

born Nov. 18, 1901, Jefferson, Iowa, U.S. died July 26, 1984, Tschingel, Switz. U.S. public-opinion statistician whose Gallup Poll became almost a generic title for public opinion sample surveys. Popular faith in public-opinion polls was greatest after 1936, when Gallup, Elmo Roper, and Archibald Crossley, acting independently but using similar methods of sampling, forecast Franklin D. Roosevelt's victory over Alfred M. Landon in the U.S. presidential election. Gallup taught journalism at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, and Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., until 1932, when an advertising firm in New York City hired him to conduct public-opinion surveys on behalf of its clients. He founded the American Institute of Public Opinion in 1935, the British Institute of Public Opinion in 1936, and the Audience Research Institute, Inc., in 1939. Although, along with other pollsters, Gallup incorrectly predicted Pres. Harry S. Truman's defeat in the U.S. presidential election of 1948, the percentage of error was small; subsequent predictions were more correct or more cautious. Gallup wrote several books, including The Pulse of Democracy (1940) and The Sophisticated Poll Watcher's Guide (rev. ed., 1976). He also founded the Quill and Scroll, an international honour society for high school journalists.