Charles Roy Henderson ((1911-04-01)April 1, 1911 – (1989-03-14)March 14, 1989) was an American statistician and a pioneer in animal breeding — the application of quantitative methods for the genetic evaluation of domestic livestock.
He developed mixed model equations to obtain best linear unbiased predictions of breeding values and, in general, any random effect.
He invented three methods for the estimation of variance components in unbalanced settings of mixed models, and invented a method for constructing the inverse of Wright's numerator relationship matrix based on a simple list of pedigree information.
His methods are widely used by the domestic livestock industry throughout the world and are a cornerstone of linear model theory.
(nutrition) and Ph.D.(breeding) degrees at Iowa State University, where he was a student of Professor L. N. Hazel.