W. A. Jenkins

Actuary, author of "Osculatory interpolation: New derivation and formulae," Record of the American Institute of Actuaries, 15, 87 (1926) — a formula-derivation paper inside the actuarial mortality-table-smoothing literature.

Matters to this vault as the actuary Isaac Schoenberg names first, in his own words, as the "fundamental work" his 1946 spline papers set out to extend: "we mention especially the fundamental work of W. A. Jenkins and the valuable systematization of the subject by T. N. E. Greville" (claim-schoenberg-1946-credits-jenkins-1926-greville-1944-as-osculatory-interpolation-predecessors). Schoenberg's own "modified osculatory formula" terminology traces to Jenkins; a further footnote (G. J. Lidstone, 1930) cites a paper applying "graduation" directly to Jenkins' modified formula. Jenkins is credited with three further papers on osculatory interpolation beyond the 1926 one, per Schoenberg's own footnote pointing to Greville's bibliography — not otherwise investigated in this vault.

References

• claim-schoenberg-1946-credits-jenkins-1926-greville-1944-as-osculatory-interpolation-predecessors
• Capture: 10-inbox/raw/2026-08-29-do-schoenbergs-1946-b-spline-papers-actually-use.md