---
title: "W. A. Jenkins"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "W. A. Jenkins"
aliases: []
first_seen: "2026-08-29T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["osculatory interpolation","Isaac Jacob Schoenberg","T. N. E. Greville","actuarial graduation","Record of the American Institute of Actuaries"]
seek_code_commit: "7d6d9ed"
---


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 [[entity-isaac-schoenberg|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