Math Department (History)

After Morse: 1958 - 1967

The humorless, dreary Morse era did not end with his retirement in 1958. He was succeeded by Fox, Farrell as acting chairman in 1962, and Fox again from 1963 until his retirement in 1966. At that point, William C. Stone, (Union '42), became chairman. Each of these men had spent most (and in Stone's case, all) of his career under the chairmanship of David Morse and in consequence, had little or no experience with other models. But the mathematical times had changed - there was now a shortage of Ph.D.s, and a good part of the chairman's job was to recruit quality people in an unfriendly market. Moreover, candidates for positions even at small colleges were now interested in sustaining their research interests as well as developing as teachers. Perhaps not surprisingly, Fox, Farrell and Stone had their principal recruiting success with former students who had recently earned their Ph.D.s.

Three Union alumni, Stewart Robinson ('55), Howard Bell ('58) and Theodore Bick ('58), were recruited back to the campus, Robinson in 1964 and Bell and Bick in 1966. They joined with Yel-Chiang Wu, who also arrived in 1966, in informal seminars. Inevitably, the talk turned from mathematics to a discussion of the future of the department under Stone's leadership. These young men came to the conclusion that in the existing climate, the length of Stone's absence from the professional mathematical world would make it impossible for him to do the necessary recruiting. At their request, Stone resigned the chair and was replaced for the academic year 1967-68 by James D. Palmer, Dean of Science and Engineering. Stone was an acclaimed teacher, a charming and decent man, and very popular across the campus. He saw himself, and here again the Morse influence is clearly discernable, as "a teacher rather than a mathematician." Many faculty members inside and outside the department saw Stone's removal from office as an unnecessary humiliation; the rebels who had asked for his removal received very bad press. Three of them (Bell, Robinson and Wu) left the College in 1967.

Math Department web pages
Created: 06 Mar 1997
Last modified: 09 Oct 1999 00:00:00
Comments to: math@union.edu