Dr Joseph Hilbe, 1962 graduate of Paradise High School, is a recent inductee into the Paradise High School Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2009 he was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus at California State University, Chico, and In 2007 was inducted into the Chico State Athletic Hall of Fame. He is the only Distinguished Alumnus who is also a Hall of Fame member. Hilbe won two national track championships and was a world ranked sprinter in the 1960's. He was also a lead competition official at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and served many times as a U.S. track team coach.

Prof Hilbe is now an emeritus professor at the University of Hawaii and since 1992 has been a statistics professor at Arizona State University. He is also a Solar System ambassador with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Hilbe is an elected Fellow of both the American Statistical Association and Royal Statistical Society, and is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), for which he is chair of the astrostatistics and sports statistics committees. He founded and is chair of the ISI Astrostatistics Network, the first global association of astrostatisticians. The ISI is the world association of statisticians, with headquarters in The Netherlands. Hilbe is author of a several popular texts on statistical modeling, and teaches five web-based continuing education courses on statisical modeling to other statisticians and researchers worldwide.

Dr. Hilbe is married with three children and two grandchildren, all living in Arizona.