In Memoriam: 2018

Richard B. Talmadge was a member of the MAA for 43 years, and his death was reported to the MAA in 2018. Born in 1924, he received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 1951. Talmadge worked in the aerospace and computing industries. For IBM, he was one of the leaders of the COBOL Commercial Translator (COMTRAN) project. More information about Talmadge’s career can be found on page 70 of this IBM document.

David W. Henderson died on December 20, 2018, at the age of 79. He was Professor Emeritus at Cornell University and a member of the MAA for 57 years. Henderson was known for his research on geometric aspects of topology, as well as his passion for mathematics education. He was part of the core curriculum development team of the Algebra Project established by Robert Moses. More information about his life and career can be found in this remembrance posted at Cornell, and his obituary.

Steven and Joanna Wood Schot were strong supporters of the MAA. Steven passed away on December 13, 2018 at the age of 88, and Joanna passed away on February 8, 2019, at the age of 91. Steven was an emeritus professor at American University, retiring in 1995, and a member of the MAA for 50 years. He was a specialist in the history of mathematics, as well as boundary value problems. He was an invited speaker at an MAA Section Meeting in 1977. Joanna was a nuclear physicist as a civilian for the United States Navy for 37 years and was department head for the Numerical Fluid Dynamics Branch. She authored 18 professional publications based on her work. She also served as the Executive Director of the Association for Women in Mathematics in 1994-95. Steven and Joanna were married for 62 years.

Joseph E. Houle passed away on December 8, 2018, at the age of 88. Houle was Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Dean Emeritus of the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences of Pace University in New York. He was a member of the MAA for 65 years. Among his accomplishments, he was a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and served as Chair of the Mathematics Section. More information about his life and career can be found in his obituary.

David E. Zitarelli passed away on December 2, 2018, at the age of 77. He was professor emeritus at Temple University and a member of the MAA for 57 years. Zitarelli was an authority in the history of mathematics, and the MAA will be publishing his A History of Mathematics in the United States and Canada: Volume 1: 1492–1930 in 2019. Zitarelli also wrote a history of the MAA’s EPADEL section and served on the MAA’s Centennial History subcommitee and the Joint Committee on Archives. More information about his life and career can be found in an autobiographical sketch he posted to his Temple site, an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, and his obituary.

Perfecto Vazquez passed away November 9, 2018, at the age of 85. He was a member of the MAA for 31 years, and Monsignor in the Catholic Church. Msgr. Vasquez was the Brooklyn Diocese’s first Hispanic pastor, and he was a teacher of mathematics. More information about Msgr. Vasquez life and career can be found in this obituary.

Richard A. Moore passed away on October 20, 2018, at the age of 94. He was Professor Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and a member of the MAA for 53 years. At CMU, Moore led the department for several years, overseeing the development of the Doctor of Arts in Mathematics, a program designed to prepare teachers for the collegiate level. He also created a summer program on programming and problem solving for high achieving elementary-age students. More information about Moore’s life and career can be found in his obituary.

Bernard Kolman passed away on October 11, 2018, at the age of 86. He was a professor at Drexel University and a member of the MAA for 57 years. Early in his career, Kolman was a principal mathematician at the UNIVAC Division of Sperry Rand Corporation, and from 1985 to 1987, Kolman was the President of the EPADEL Section of the Mathematical Association of America. He was the author of several textbooks in linear algebra and other topics. There are more details about his life in his obituary.

J Frederick Leetch passed away on October 9, 2018, at the age of 89.  He was a life member of the MAA, joining in 1960.  Leetch was professor emeritus at Bowling Green State University.  More information about his life and career can be found in his obituary and in tributes from others.

Joseph Kist passed away in October 2018. He was Emeritus Professor at New Mexico State University and a member of the MAA for 53 years. Kist provided a generous donation to Project NExT in his estate.

Henry Sharp, Jr. passed away September 23, 2018, at the age of 94. He was a member of the MAA for 64 years. Sharp held mathematics professorships at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University for thirty years, followed by eight years as the Radford Chair of Mathematics at Washington and Lee University, where he also served as department head. He was an elected officer for the MAA and the American Association of University Professors, and a member of the American Mathematical Society. Sharp wrote or co-wrote a dozen research publications and five textbooks. In retirement, he tutored students in the mentorship programs of the Lexington and Rockbridge County public schools. More information about his life and career can be found in this remembrance from Washington and Lee University and in his obituary.

Olive Leskow passed away on September 9, 2018, at the age of 99. She was a member of the MAA for 70 years! She was a mathematics teacher for 40 years in the Gary, Indiana public school system, retiring in 1984. Leskow published in The Mathematics Teacher and was active in NCTM and the Indiana CTM. Leskow was fondly remembered as a teacher at Lew Wallace High School in Gary, and more information about her life and career can be found in her obituary.

Stephen Carlson passed away on August 18, 2018, at the age of 71. He retired as a professor at Rose-Hulman University in 2012. Carlson was a topologist and the author of a text for undergraduates on the subject. He was an active member of the MAA for 28 years, serving in a variety of roles in the Indiana Section and the North Central section. At the national level, Carlson chaired the Committee on Sections and the Committee on SIGMAAs for several years each. He was a Visiting Mathematician at the Association headquarters during the 2004-2005 academic year. More information about his life and career can be found in this biographical sketch on the Indiana Section’s web site, the citation for his Section Distinguished Service Award, a statement on his induction into the Signature HealthCARE Hall of Fame, and his obituary.

David C. Lay passed away on August 12, 2018, at the age of 77. He was a professor at the University of Maryland and a member of the MAA for 35 years. Lay is best known for his well-known textbook Linear Algebra and Its Applications, In 1996, he was honored with the title “Distinguished Scholar-Teacher of the University of Maryland”. Lay also served several terms on the national board of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences. Further information about Lay’s life and career can be found in a remembrance from the University of Maryland and his extensive obituary.

Dirk A. Plummer passed away on July 21, 2018, at the age of 88. Plummer served his country in the US Army for over 30 years and was a lifetime member of the MAA. As a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was on the staff of “The Tech” student newspaper. More information about his life can be found in his obituary.

Andrew Borden, Jr. passed away on July 19, 2018, at the age of 84. Borden served in the US Air Force for 24 years, retiring as a Colonel, and then taught mathematics in the Alamo College District and other colleges in Texas. He was a member of the MAA for 13 years. More information about his life and career can be found in his obituary.

Arnold Wedel passed away on June 30, 2018, at the age of 90. He was Professor Emeritus at Bethel College (Kansas) and a member of the MAA for 57 years. He served as chair and governor of the Kansas section of the MAA, earning the Meritorious Service Award in 1987. A room at the MAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., is named for him. More information about Wedel’s life and career can be found in this article from Bethel College and his obituary.

Robert Xeras passed away on June 19, 2018, at the age of 78. He was Professor Emeritus at Siena Heights University and a member of the MAA for 41 years. Xeras served 17 years as the Public Information Officer for the Michigan Section of the MAA. He also worked as a system analyst for 30 years at St. Joseph’s hospital in Ann Arbor, taught mathematics at Lawrence Tech Institute, and served in the Marine Corps Reserves. More information about his life and career can be found in his obituary.

John William “Bill” Friel passed away on June 11, 2018, at the age of 81. He was Professor Emeritus at the University of Dayton and a member of the MAA for more than 40 years. Friel was very active in the Ohio Section of the MAA, serving as its president, secretary-treasurer, and treasurer. More information about his life and career can be found in his obituary. Some photos from his life are also available.

Ivar Skakgold passed away on May 29, 2018, at the age of 92. He was professor emeritus at the University of Delaware and a member of the MAA for 45 years. He was also on the faculty of Northwestern University during his career. Stakgold was the author or co-author of several on the topic of boundary value problems. He was also a champion bridge player and served as the president of SIAM in 1989-90. More information about his life and career can be found in SIAM News, his Wikipedia page, and his obituary.

Peter Curran passed away on April 18, 2018, at the age of 92. Curran was a member of the MAA for 70 years! He was Professor Emeritus at Fordham University, after 49 years of service to the institution. His research specialties included algebra and cohomology. Curran left a strong legacy at Fordham, as reflected in comments provided by colleagues in a 2015 article, Fordham’s remembrance after his death, and tributes posted to his obituary page.

Joseph Flaherty passed away on March 28, 2018, at the age of 74. He was Amos Eaton Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and a member of the MAA until his retirement in 2005. Flaherty was an applied mathematician and was crucial to the establishment of the Department of Computer Science at RPI. He also served as RPI’s Dean of the School of Science. More information about his life and career can be found in his obituary.

Jeffrey Bergen passed away on March 14, 2018, at the age of 62. He was a member of the MAA for four years and a professor at DePaul University starting in 1981. Bergen was an internationally recognized scholar in the area of non-commutative algebra. An article published by DePaul in early March has a photograph of Bergen as well as his mathematical comments about “March Madness”. More information about his life can be found in his obituary.

Philip J. Davis passed away on March 14, 2018, at the age of 95. Davis was Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics at Brown University and a well-known writer for which he received many awards. The MAA awarded him the Paul R. Halmos - Lester R. Ford Award in 1982 for his article “Are There Coincidences in Mathematics” and the George Pólya Award in 1986 for his article “What Do I Know? A Study of Mathematical Self-Awareness”. In 1997, Davis received the JPBM Communications Award with this citation: “For being a prolific communicator of mathematics to the general public”. He is best known for The Mathematical Experience and Descartes' Dream, books which he co-authored with Reuben Hersch. Much more information about his life and career can be found in SIAM News, a biography from Brown University, an interview he gave in 2004, his obituary, and this page created by his son Ernest. Davis was a member of the MAA for 59 years.

Clarence Stephens passed away on March 5, 2018, at the age of 100. He was a member of the MAA for an extraordinary 77 years. Stephens was the ninth African American to receive a PhD in mathematics and is best known for leading the mathematics department at SUNY-Potsdam from 1969 until his retirement in 1987. As chair of the department, he played the leading role in “The Potsdam Miracle” – combining a welcoming atmosphere with a rigorous curriculum that led to a remarkable increase in the number of mathematics majors at that institution. For instance, in 1985, Potsdam graduated 184 mathematics majors, which was about a quarter of the degrees given there that year. For his leadership, Stephens was awarded the MAA’s Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award for Distinguished Service in 2003. Significantly more information about his life and career can be found in the citation for the 2003 award, an article published in 2017 in MAA FOCUS, a biography published by the National Association of Mathematicians, an article published at the University of Buffalo, his Wikipedia page, and his obituary.

Murray Gechtman passed away on February 28, 2018, at the age of 88. Gechtman taught math at Pierce College (Los Angeles) for more than 40 years and he was a member of the MAA for 57 years. According to his obituary: “He was a man of principle; he wrote several textbooks which were unapologetically difficult. His publishers asked him to ‘dumb them down’ but he refused.”

Herbert Wathan passed away on February 25, 2018, at the age of 91. Wathan was a member of the MAA for 47 years. He taught mathematics at Louisiana State University at Eunice and at the University of New Orleans before retiring in 1995. More information about Wathan’s life and career can be found in his obituary.

Alan Baker passed away on February 4, 2018, at the age of 78. Baker was a number theorist who received a Fields Medal in 1970 based on his solution to Hilbert's seventh problem, which goes back to the work of Diophantus from the third century. Baker was a faculty member at Trinity College of Cambridge University, and more information about his life and the mathematics underlying his Fields Medal work can be found in this article published by The Guardian.

Peter Hagis passed away on January 11, 2018, at the age of 91. He was Professor Emeritus at Temple University and a member of the MAA for 64 years. Hagis was a number theorist and more information about his life and career can be found in his obituary.

Franklin Kellogg passed away on January 9, 2018, at the age of 91. He was a long-serving faculty member at Johnson State College in Vermont (now Northern Vermont University) and a member of the MAA for 54 years. More information about Kellogg’s life and career can be found in his obituary.

Eleanor Killam passed away on January 1, 2018, at the age of 84. She was a member of the MAA for 55 years and Professor Emerita at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). Killam was one of three professor who established what is now known as the Jacob-Cohen-Killam Mathematics Competition at UMass. More information about her life and career can be found in her obituary.

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