The late Dr. Mendenhall served in the Navy in the Korean War and obtained a Ph.D. in Statistics at North Carolina State University. After receiving his Ph.D , he was a professor in the Mathematics Department at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania before moving to Gainesville in 1963 where he was the first chairman of the Department of Statistics at the University of Florida. Dr. Mendenhall published articles in some of the top statistics journals, such as Biometika and Technometrics; however, he is more widely known for his prolific textbook career.

He authored or co-authored approximately 13 Statistics textbooks and several books about his childhood.