Roger Rauschenbusch Baldwin (1929–2021) was an American military serviceman and researcher.
Baldwin was born in Manhattan to economist Stephen Raushenbush and social reformer Evelyn Preston.[1] After his parents' divorce, he was adopted by stepfather Roger Nash Baldwin, a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.[1] Baldwin grew up in Greenwich Village and completed his education at Cornell University and Columbia University.[1]
While serving in the U.S. Army, Baldwin, alongside Wilbert Cantey, Herbert Maisel, and James McDermott, developed a statistical strategy for blackjack called Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.[1] [2] This work involved extensive research using Army desk calculators to optimize player odds in the game.[1] Their findings were published in the Journal of the American Statistical Association in 1956 and influenced Edward O. Thorp's later work, Beat the Dealer.[1] [2]
His professional career was primarily in system administration at Union Carbide, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the City of New York.[1] In 2008, Baldwin and his colleagues were inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame, recognizing their contributions to the game.[3]