History of The Department of Mathematical Sciences at The University of Montana A Collection of Interviews Varoujan Bedros Daniel F. Finch Charles Myers Merrie Rampy Edited by Johnny W. Lott 1 ©2006. The Department of Mathematical Sciences of The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812 2 Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………….4 List of Sample Interview Questions…………………………………6 Interviews William Ballard………………………………………………7 Richard (Rick) Billstein…………………………………….15 Mary Jean Brod……………………………………………..28 Charles Bryan……………………………………………….38 Rudy Gideon………………………………………………..48 Jon Graham…………………………………………………56 Gloria Conyers Hewitt……………………………………...61 James (Jim) Hirstein…………..……………………………79 Leonid Kalachev……………………………………………87 Don Loftsgaarden…………………………………………..90 Johnny W. Lott……………………………………………..95 Merle Manis……………………………………………….105 Robert McKelvey………………………………………….126 George McRae…………………………………………….136 William (Bill) M. Myers, Jr……………………………….150 David Patterson……………………………………………159 Howard Reinhardt…………………………………………165 Gregory (Greg) St. George………………………………..174 Brian Steele………………………………………………..182 Keith Yale…………………………………………………186 Faculty Members in the Department of Mathematics/ Mathematical Sciences at The University of Montana…………..191 3 4 Introduction In 1999, the Math 606 Topics in the History of Mathematics class was presented a challenge by the instructor of record, Dr. Johnny W. Lott, Professor, in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at The University of Montana. He offered a variety of projects to accompany the readings, problems and presentations that the class was required to do for the semester. Because the university had celebrated its centennial celebration and the department had a faculty member since the beginning of the institution, one project was to assemble a history of the department including a set of audio tapes of current and recently retired faculty members discussing different questions that the class would develop. After some discussion, the four students agreed that this was a joint project that they would like to do for the semester. With the help of Mansfield Library archivist, Jodi Allison-Bunnell, the class received some instruction in what it takes to do an oral history, a set of blank audio tapes from the Library, and the work began. The students who are listed as the authors of this work were graduate students in the class and those students conducted all of the interviews in 1999. One tape, that of Dr. Gloria Conyers Hewitt, was accidentally erased in the transcription process. Dr. Hewitt was re- interviewed by Lott in 2006. When the interviews were completed, all the tapes and the permissions for publishing the transcriptions were returned to Lott and the transcription work began. As a novice person working on an oral history, the amount of time involved in the transcriptions was vastly underestimated, and work stopped for a period of time. Professor Lott applied for a grant to help with the transcription but that grant was not funded. In order to spur the completion of the work, department chair, James Hirstein, paid for Tamara Scholz to transcribe the tapes. The initial transcripts were completed with the exception of that of Dr. Hewitt. The initial transcripts were distributed to the interviewees to check for name accuracy. To complete the project now seven years later, Professor Lott made a check of the accuracy of the transcriptions, correcting spellings as much as possible, and re-typing those transcriptions that had not been made electronically. As the professor of record Math 606, I naively thought that this project could be done at least within an academic year. That did not happen and I take full responsibility for the very long delay in getting the work done. I also take full responsibility for any typographical errors in the transcriptions at this stage. One note to my fellow professors is that I also naively thought that corrections in grammar and other small corrections to make the record factually accurate could be made in a final product. I have since learned that future historians want an 5 accurate transcription of the audio tape, not necessarily a corrected one. Because of that, I have made the transcriptions as true to the record as I could make them. There are places in the transcriptions where (?) is used when the tape simply could not be heard clearly enough to transcribe the sounds. Users will see that this is true especially in some tapes where there were distracting sounds, like bells, phones, and people interruptions and in other places where the microphone was not near enough to the speaker. Little could be done about those problems. I personally want to thank both the interviewers and the interviewees for helping with this project. The oral history is an important view of the Department of Mathematical Sciences in 1999. Updates to include faculty members in the written record, not the interviews, were added in a final section. Thanks to the department for allowing me to copy pictures for the file. All files (written, electronic, and tape, where available, have been presented to the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives for cataloguing. Johnny W. Lott , Professor Emeritus Department of Mathematical Sciences The University of Montana Missoula, MT 59812 December 13, 2006 6 Set of Possible Interview Questions Submitted by Class Members 1. Why did you choose to become a faculty member at The University of Montana? 2. Who was the most influential person in helping you choose mathematics as a career? How did that person influence you? 3. What were your goals when you started and have these been accomplished? 4. What changes has the department gone through since you have been here? a. Were you involved directly in those changes? b. What did you think of them? c. What changes to the physical plant can you recall? d. Has the department grown since your arrival? 5. If you can identify the best asset of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at The University of Montana, what is it? 6. In what area of research are you especially interested? a. Have you done research in other areas? b. Could you please tell me where I can find examples of your work? c. On what are you currently working? d. Has technology affected your area of research? 7. What question would you suggest for a year 2000 “Hilbert” list of problems to direct the thinking of mathematicians or mathematics educators? 8. How has content changed in mathematics courses over your career? How do you expect it to continue to change? 9. Do you have a favorite anecdote or memory that reminds you of why you enjoy being here? 7 Interview with Dr. William Ballard (WB) Department of Mathematical Sciences The University of Montana Missoula, MT 59812 by Varoujan Bedros (VB) VB: Dr. Ballard, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, and in particular, when and where you received your degrees? WB: Well, I had my undergraduate work at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington which wasn’t very far from where I grew up. My family had an orchard growing various fruits in the Yakima Valley in Central Washington. I got my degree in, bachelor’s degree, in 1946. Went to the University of Chicago, and got a Master’s degree there in the fall of 1947. And then after that academic year I spent two years teaching at a state college in Washington, then returned to Chicago. Various things intervened, and I eventually got my Ph.D. at Chicago in 1957. Does that answer the question? VB: Do you recall what was the dissertation topic? WB: The dissertation topic was Cohomology of Fields . So, this was homological algebra, cohomology to groups to find for a certain field extensions. VB: Okay. Why did you choose to become a faculty member at The University of Montana? 8 WB: Well, by the time I was choosing that, I certainly wanted to be a faculty member somewhere, and I had traveled through Montana several times, and it looked to me as though Missoula would be a nice place to live. For two or three reasons, one was simply that, one of the nice features, one of the best features of a place I came from in Central Washington was the nearby forests and mountains in the Cascades; that’s in Washington. And the mountains and forests around Missoula were rather similar, but there were more of them. So, I thought Missoula might be even better as just a place to live. And of course I wanted to teach mathematics somewhere. I wanted to get away from where I was, just at that time. I had been teaching at the Air Force Institute of Technology, which is an engineering school which is at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. That was a good job. I was, I had an Air Force commission, and was at that time being discharged from the Air Force, but I’d had a good job there, and I could’ve continued, but actually every summer I got hay fever rather badly there. It was, I found it very difficult to breathe, naturally from about middle of August to about middle of October, and I thought it would be a good idea to get away from Ohio. And the Rocky Mountains appealed to me, so I choose to come to the Rocky Mountains. I actually applied for positions at three universities in the Rocky Mountains, and got offers from three and chose Missoula. VB: Good. WB: And that was it. VB: Who was the most influential person in helping you choose mathematics as a career? How did that person influence you? WB: Well, to answer that is rather difficult. I don’t know that there’s any one person that I would say did that. I had a very good mathematics teacher in high school. A right, remarkable woman. I had some good undergraduate teachers in mathematics, and, but I also had good teachers in some other things.