History of the Northeastern Section of the MAA

The Northeastern Section of the MAA was inaugurated on November 26, 1955 at a meeting attended by more than seventy people and hosted by the University of New Hampshire. The name originally proposed was the New England Section but the name Northeastern Section was adopted to emphasize that not only New England but also the Maritime Provinces would be represented in the Section.Although most meetings have been in New England,Mount Allison University in Sackville,New Brunswick hosted a memorable summer meeting in 1967.

The list of speakers in the early years included such famous mathematicians and mathematics teachers as Dirk Struik of MIT;David Widder,Garrett Birchoff,Ralph Beatley,Richard Brauer,and Howard Raiffa of Harvard;Hans Zassenhaus at that time at McGill;Hans Rademacher of the University of Pennsylvania;John Kemeny of Dartmouth;Max Beberman of the University of Illinois;Bob Rosenbaum of Wesleyan;Albert Tucker of Princeton;Oystein Ore of Yale; and Father Bezuska of Boston College.Of special note is Dan Christie of Bowdoin College,who later served as Chairman of the Section and sectional representative on the Board of Governors of the MAA.After his death the annual Dan Christie Memorial Lecture was established in memory of him.

The present national concern for curricular revision seems an echo of the post-sputnik era when the 1958 meeting of the Section included a paper The Report of the Commission on Mathematics and another The School Mathematics Study Group. In this era many members of the Section generously contributed much time and energy visiting high schools of the region to give lectures and consult with the mathematics teachers.

Among the many members who have served as officers of the Section two who merit special mention for their many years of service are Dick Pieters, formerly of Phillips Academy in Andover, and George Best,a continuing faculty member at Phillips Academy.

One of the outstanding programs of the Northeastern Section has been the series of short courses held each summer at the University of Maine at Orono.When in 1987 Don Small of Colby College was awarded the MAA Certificate of Meritorious Service,his leadership role as one of the founders and frequent co-director of these short courses was one of the many of his services being recognized.

DAN EDWIN CHRISTIE
(1915-1975)

Dan E. Christie, for whom the Northeastern Section's Christie Lecture is named, was a slight modest man.

There was not an ounce of pretense in Dan's makeup. He was amicable, not familiar; conversable, not effusive; companionable, not intrusive. He was genuinely friendly, full of concern for the welfare of his associates.

Because of his quiet, gentlemanly nature, it was easy for those who knew him to forget just how well known he was in the mathematics community.

Dan Christie was everywhere dense among mathematicians.

A founding father of the Northeastern Section, Dan served as its chairman and twice as its representative on the board of governors. His MAA activities were not confined to the Northeast, however. In 1963 he was appointed to the MAA Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics, in 1965 to the Committee on an Internship in Mathematics Education, and in 1972 to the Committee on Assistance to developing Colleges. He also served on several other MAA panels and committees during his 32 years of MAA membership.

A native of Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, Dan graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Bowdoin College in the Class of 1937. During the 1937-38 academic year, he was a Henry Fellow at St. John's College of Cambridge University. After receiving his A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton, he returned to Bowdoin in 1942 as an instructor in Physics and Mathematics, and he remained at Bowdoin throughout his entire career. During World War II, he was a civilian lecturer in the Army Air Force basic pre-meteorological program and the Naval Officers pre-radar school at Bowdoin. He worked up through the academic ranks to hold the chair of Wing Professorship of Mathematics and he was Chairman of the Department from 1964 to 1972.

Under Dan's leadership in the early 1960's, Bowdoin adopted a unique plan designed to select as new members of the mathematics faculty, teachers with research interests concentrated in a particular area, rather than employing people representing a cross-section of the research specialties. As a result, Bowdoin developed as large a group of specialists in algebra as would be found in many universities. This plan greatly expanded the department's algebraic research capability and its ability to offer young, well-trained mathematicians career opportunities to match those in large universities.

From 1965 to 1969 Dan was the director of four Academic Year Institutes (AYI) at Bowdoin. The AYI program, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), enabled selected secondary school teachers to earn A.M. degrees in mathematics by completing ac year of in-residence studies and attending courses at a NSF summer institute.

Dan was involved in efforts to promote mathematical research, too. He investigated forms and levels of support for research in mathematics as a member of the National Academy of Sciences- National Research Council's Committee on Support of Research in the Mathematical Sciences (COSRIMS). He was also Director of Bowdoin's Advanced Science Seminars, a series of NSF summer programs designed to stimulate postgraduate education and research in mathematics, from 1965 to 1971.

I think Dan Christie's most striking contribution was the sequence of Advanced Science Seminars in Algebra, which he created single-handed. There have been no other instructional institutes in mathematics that have compared in the high level of achievement and excitement. Research mathematicians still refer to the Bowdoin Advanced Science Seminars in Algebra as a standard against which any other summer program is to be measured. These seminars had their origin in Dan Christie's imagination and uncommon good sense; they were maintained through his energy and devotion.

Dan Christie believed so strongly that no one could claim to be a literate person unless he has a sense of what mathematics is; not merely that he should know a bit of algebra and a bit of geometry, but that he should be aware of what living mathematicians are doing just as he should be aware of what living poets are writing, and what living philosophers are saying. It was this basic belief that lead Dan to imagine, create and implement a new course designed particularly for the non-specialist, designed to show young people that in their world mathematics must play a part.

When Dan died in 1975, the MAA Board of Governors passed a resolution which included the following statement :

"Dan Christie's legacy to mathematics is reflected from many facets - his intellect, his integrity, the students and colleagues whom he inspired, the summer institutes and seminars that he organized, his personal demonstration that small colleges can foster a high level of scholarly work in mathematics, and his devoted service in the councils of this Association, including CUPM, and two terms on the Board of Governors."

His dedication quickened our efforts, his wisdom guided our deliberations, and his friendship lightened our days. We mark his parting in sadness, and we speak our gratitude for the time he shared with us.

In honor of Dan Christie's contributions, the Northeastern Section inaugurated the Christie Lecture in 1978. The list of Christie Lecturers over the years reads like a Who's Who of mathematics : John Milnor,Gian-Carlo Rota, John T. Tate, John Wermer, Henry O. Pollak, Philip Davis, Thomas Tucker, Ernst Snapper, Rueben Hersh and Ron Graham.

"His talks will hold an audience spellbound whether he addresses high school students, undergraduates, or mathematics faculty."So states a recent University of Central Florida flier advertising a lecture series by Howard Eves. Some years ago my wife, who professed great mathematical anxiety, my daughter, who was then in grammar school, and I attended his lecture Mathematically Motivated Designs at Colby College in Maine. All three of us were completely fascinated by the talk, showing the opening quotation to be an understatement.Indeed as one of his colleagues described him, Howard Eves is "one of the most fascinating lectures in mathematics that one can hope to find anywhere."

Howard Eves obtained his B.S. from the University of Virginia in 1934 and his M.A. from Harvard the next year, both in mathematics.He did further study at Princeton University during the next two years, and received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Oregon State University in 1948.

While at Princeton, he met many renowned mathematicians, including Albert Einstein, with whom he became well acquainted.Since they lived near one another, they would walk home together many afternoons.Along the route there was a drugstore with a huge ice cream cone out front.One day Einstein remarked that it looked inviting, so Eves offered to buy him one.From then on, it became a ritual for Howard to buy cones for the two of them as they walked home.One day, as they approached the drugstore, Einstein's eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "Look!I've got my own nickel today!"When he placed it on the counter to pay for his cone, Eves was prepared and snatched it up, replacing it with one of his own.That nickel became one of the first acquisitions in Howard Eves' famous Mathematical Museum: a nickel once owned by Albert Einstein.

Shortly after Oswald Veblen died at his retirement home on the Maine coast, Howard Eves visited the grounds for a quiet stroll in memory of this famous mathematician.As he walked beside the house he spotted a new broken yellow pencil on the ground, picked it up, and added it to his museum.Surely this was Veblen's pencil, for who else but a nearly blind person would drop a bright yellow pencil, step on it and break it, and still not see it to pick it up?Although no longer intact, Eves' Mathematical Museum would have filled a station wagon at one time.

After his stint at Princeton,Howard worked as surveyor for a year and as a mathematician for the Tennessee Valley Authority for another year.Then he went into teaching at Syracuse University 1940-1943, at the University of Puget Sound 1943-44, where he was head of the department, Oregon State University 1944-51, SUNY at Plattsburgh 1951-53, again as department head,SUNY at Binghamton 1953-54, and the University of Maine 1954 to his retirement in 1976.

Since retirement he has taught at the University of Maine at Machias and currently he teaches each spring at the University of Central Florida and summers at home in Lubec Maine, literally a stone throw from the easternmost tip of the United States.

Howard Eves has published well over 30 books and 200 papers and articles, many in geometry.His book on the history of mathematics has been the best seller in its field ever since its initial appearance in 1953.Ten years later he published his authoritative A Survey of Geometry in two volumes.His Mathematical Circles books, published by Prindle, Weber & Schmidt in six volumes from 1969 to 1987, form an outstanding collection of anecdotes and stories about mathematics and mathematicians.Of a more serious nature are his two Great Moments in Mathematics books, a collection of 43 lectures describing important developments in mathematics from the proof of the Pythagorean theorem to the resolution of the four color problem. They are volumes 5 and 7 in the Dolciani Mathematical Expositions, published in 1980 and 1981 by the Mathematical Association of America. These two series, the Circles and Great Moments books should be on the shelves of every teacher of mathematics, along with his History text.

For a quarter century he edited the Elementary Problem Department of the American Mathematical Monthly, publishing ten problems each month.It was my privilege to assist him during the last two years of his term.After an interim editor suddenly gave up this back-breaking task, Eves organized the Problems Group at the University of Maine, a collection of nine or ten faculty members who collectively edited the Elementary Problems Department for several years.He is an active problemist, still publishing problems and solutions in the journals.

He has served on the editorial boards of Mathematics Magazine, the Mathematics Teacher, the Two Year College Mathematics Magazine, and the Fibonacci Quarterly.Pi Mu Epsilon, Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Delta Zeta, and the Mark Twain Society have all honored him with memberships.He has been active in the Mathematical Association of America, the American Mathematical Society, and the French Mathematical Society.

We first became acquainted in 1956 when I started teaching at the University of Maine.I took several courses from him and sat in on several others to learn what I could from him.For the next twenty years we worked together on various projects.

There are many stories that illustrate just how much Howard Eves cares for people.He has often stated that his skills and knowledge have been given to him by others and it is his responsibility to pass them on.Therefore he could not keep the royalties that his books have earned;he has given them all to a black college.Over the years he has befriended many people who needed help and has aided them with money, lodging, and encouragement.

All these things he has done with a delightful sense of humor.He once confided that it terrified him that after he drove home, he remembered leaving the office and then his next recollection would be of driving into the garage.For all he knew he could have caused several accidents and run over all sorts of people on the way home.He said he would turn to the Police Beat of the local newspaper each morning to see if anyone was the victim of a hit-and-run accident in his area the preceding day and he would carefully check his car for dented fenders.Of course, there never was such an accident.I once told him that I had attended a lecture on continued fractions.He immediately replied that of course the lecturer never completed the lecture.

They say that all good teachers are frustrated actors at heart.Certainly Howard Eves is a seasoned performer.Upon occasion he will tell of the ways that mathematicians have met their ends:Archimedes was stabbed by a Roman soldier; Pythagoras was burned to death because he would not escape through a sacred field of grain;Hypatia was stoned to death by her Christian students, and so forth.The humor with which he would tell of the way Rene Descartes died because of the request of the young Queen Christina of Sweden had his students in stitches.When they would be laughing so hard that tears came to their eyes, he would stop and look at them with mock shock and say, "I can't understand why you are all laughing so.This is Tragic."

I owe much to Howard Eves.He inspired and encouraged me to start writing books.He led me into problems work.He showed me his love for teaching and for mathematics and taught me that a teacher must be scrupulously honest with his or her students.If I am a good teacher, it is mainly his example that has made me so.

On October 14, 1955, Professor Howard Eves of the University of Maine sent a letter to the mathematicians of the New England Region asking them to meet at the Universityof New Hampshire in Durham, on November 26, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, for the purpose of organizing into a Section of the Mathematical Association of America. He pointed out that all of the United States and Canada with the exception of the six New England States and the four Canadian Provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, were already organized into Sections of the Association. Eves noted that although as a Region, we could vote for a Governor (G. B. Thomas of MIT was then the Governor of the Region) as a Section we would be able to meet annually to discuss common mathematical problems, to improve the teaching of mathematics in our region and to listen to both mathematical and pedagogical papers.

Eves had arranged to have Rev. S. J. Bezuszka (Boston College), Ralph Beatley (Harvard), R. P. Johnson (Smith), R. A. Rosenbaum (Wesleyan), Dirk Struik (MIT) and R. P. Clippinger (Raytheon) present papers at the meeting. Dormitory rooms were available at a rate of $1.50 per person per night. There were 80 people in attendance at the initial meeting including 24 nonmembers of the Association. Howard Eves presided at the morning session and Donald Kearns presided at the afternoon session. The business meetingwas held shortly after lunch, with A. A. Bennett (Brown) acting as temporary chairman. A petition requesting the Mathematical Association of America to permit members of the New England Region to organize a New England Section of the Association was circulated. The petition was signed by 48 members and 8 nonmembers of the Association. However, it was felt, that since the new section would include four Canadian Provinces, the Northeastern Section would be a more appropriate name. Elected for one-year terms were Howard Eves as Chairman and Rev. S. J. Bezuszka as Vice-Chairman. R. E. Johnson was elected Secretary-Treasurer. The Northeastern Section became the 26th Section to be admitted to the Association, eight and half years after the Pacific Northwest Section, and a year before the New Jersey Section.

The Executive Committee originally consisted of the three officers of the Section. The Chairman, together with an appointed Committee on Arrangements, was responsible for the program of each meeting, the Vice-Chairman was responsible for maintaining official relations with other mathematical and scientific societies, and the Secretary-Treasurer was responsible for keeping the books, accounts, and records of the Section, and also preparing a report of the meetings for publication in the Monthly. The Secretary-Treasurer was the only officer of the Section eligible for reelection. One of the original by-laws of the Section called for the annual payment to the Secretary-Treasurer by each member of the Section the sum of $0.25. At the second meeting of the Section, that section of the by-laws was removed by a vote of the members. At the fall 1958 meeting, the membership voted to sponsor the National High School Mathematics Contest, and Rev. S. J. Bezuszka was appointed chairman of the Section Contest Committee.

There were four other meetings of the Northeastern Section in the 1950's and they were held at the University of Connecticut, Dartmouth, Holy Cross and Boston College, respectively.

At these four meetings Rev. S. J. Bezuszka, E. E. Richmond (Williams), N. H. McCoy (Smith), and J. G. Kemeny (Dartmouth) were elected Chairmen, respectively, each having served first as Vice-Chairman. During this period three members served as Secretary-Treasurer : A. F. O'Neill (Wheaton), M. C. Brien (Holy Cross), and R. S. Peiters (Phillips Academy). F. M. Stewart (Brown) replaced G. B. Thomas as Governor of the Section in 1958.

There were many outstanding speakers during the 50's : Garrett Birkhoff, Richard Brauer, D. V. Widder, and Howard Raiffa of Harvard, J. G. Kemeny, D. H. Crowell and F. W. Perkings of Darmouth, D. E. Christie and Reinhard Korgen of Bowdoin, A. W. Tucker (Princeton), Hans Rademacher (Pennsylvania), Max Beberman (Illinois), Oystein Ore (Yale), Walter Prenowitz (Brooklyn), Hartley Rogers (MIT), H. J. Zassenhaus (McGill), C. B. Newsom (NYU), D. E. Richmond (Williams), I. N. Rose (Massachusetts) and F. M. Stewart (Brown). Among those speakers several went on to hold national office. A. W. Tucker was to become President of the Association (1961-1962), Garrett Birkhoff, 1st Vice-President (1970-1971), and R. A. Rosenbaum, 2nd Vice-President (1961-1962) and Editor of the Monthly (1967-1971).

Thirty-five years after that initial meeting in Durham members of the Northeastern Section still meet to discuss common problems, to improve their teaching, and to listen to mathematical and pedagogical lectures. We have all benefitted from the wisdom and dedication of our founders, and owe a great deal to all of them, especially to Professor Howard Eves of the University of Maine.

The 1960's was a period of upheaval and search for direction in education as well as in politics. “New math" was in vogue in the classroom. Students began the decade with slide rules and ended it with hand-held calculators. Graph-theoretic attempts to discover a contradiction to the four-color theorem were in style. The impact of computers in the educational system was just beginning to be felt. In 1963, Walter Feit and John Thompson showed that every noncyclic simple group of odd integer is solvable. That same year, Michael Atiyah and I. M. Singer established the index theorem in K theory, of which the Riemann-Roch theorem is a special case. The Fields Medals that decade went to Lars Hormander, John Milnor, Michael Atiyah, Paul Cohen, Alexander Grothendieck and Stephen Smale.

Throughout the turbulent period the NES/MAA remained stalwart in its direction and purpose. The format at the meetings remained relatively constant, and the attendance at the meetings during that period averaged approximately 100. Meetings were held in almost every New England State (New Hampshire being the exception) and in Canada as well. The historic 1967 spring meeting was held at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.

There were relatively few changes in the Section by-laws during thedecade. In 1960, the by-laws were amended to make the sectional governor a member of the Executive Committee, and to institute a $1 registration fee at the annual meeting if the Executive Committee felt that such a sum was necessary to offset the expenses of a business meeting. In 1967, the Executive Committee was given the authority to award a one-year membership in the Association to individual students in the Northeastern Section ranking highest in the Putnam Mathematical competition. Two years later the first such award was given to S. K. Winkler of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

During the 60's the NES/MAA was guided by some of the most well-known and respected mathematicians in the world. The sectional governors were F. M. Stewart (Brown University), D. E. Richmond (Williams College) Howard Eves (University of Maine) and Grace Bates (Mount Holyoke College.) During this period, the Chair was occupied by John Kemeny (Dartmouth College), H. S. Dorwart (Trinity College), Grace Bates, Hartley Rogers (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Robin Robinson (Dartmouth College), G. L. Spenser (Williams College), W. H. Crawford (Mount Allison University) and Michael Gemignani (Smith College.) The position of secretary-treasurer was held by R. S. Pieters, until he was succeeded in 1965 by George Best, both from Phillips Academy. Furthermore, R. A. Rosenbaum served as Second Vice President of the Association from 1961-63 and from 1965-67. He also served as Editor of the Monthly from 1967-71. Howard Eves and John Kemeny served as Governors-at-Large for the Association, Eves from 1958-60 and Kemeny from 1960-62.

The group of invited speakers during the 60's was exceptionally outstanding. Many of the officers of the Section gave presentations themselves and the list of invited lecturers, who were not officers of the section included: R. H. Bing (President of the Association 1963-64; AMS President, 1977-78), Wistar Comfort, Phil Davis, William Duren, Howard Eves, D. J. Foulis, Vincent Haag, Einar Hille (AMS President 1947-48), G. Hocking, Ken Ireland, Mark Kac (AMS Gibbs Lecturer, 1967; AMS Birkhoff Award, 1978), Shizuo Kakutani, Kenneth O. May (Governor-at-Large of the Association 1964-65), Edwin Moise (President of the Association from 1967-68), J. R. Munkres, Oystein Ore, Gian-Carlo Rota (AMS Steele Award, 1988), Alice Schafer, I. M. Singer (AMS Bocher Memorial Award, 1969), Ernst Snapper, Laurie Snell, Norton Starr, R. J. Walker (Second Vice President of the Association 1967-68). Professors Kemeny, Moise and Walker spoke twice before the Section in the 60's.

The 60's was a time of great hopes and achievements as well as a time of contradictions and bitter disappointments. It gave us the New Frontier, the Great Society, the Vietnam War, the Beetles, Woodstock, the Apollo missions to the moon and probes to the other terrestrial planets. Members of the NES/MAA made notable contributions to the changes that occurred in the decade and helped us usher in the 70's.

The NES/MAA was in very capable hands throughout the 70's. The three Governors who served during the period as liaisons with the Association were Dan Christie (Bowdoin College), Phil Davis (Brown University) and Don Kreider (Dartmouth College.) The Section was chaired successively by Michael Gemignani (Smith College), Richard Schafer (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Don Kreider (Dartmouth College), John Fraleigh (University of Rhode Island), Eileen Hostinsky (Connecticut College), Anne O'Neill (Wheaton College), Grattan Murphy (University of Maine), Ernest Schlesinger (Connecticut College) and Don Small (Colby College.)

George Best (Phillips Academy) served during the 70's as Secretary-Treasurer and as chief factotum. Under his able leadership the organization remained financially stable. The Section started the decade with a few hundred dollars in the bank and ended it with about the same. At one point in the decade the treasury had $4.56. Undoubtedly, through the generosity and hard work of the officers, local arrangement chairs, and the speakers, together with the institution of a $1 registration fee helped the Section fend off financial disaster and at the same time kept the quality of the meetings at a high level.

The officers and local arrangements chair were instrumental in keeping the costs for the meetings as low as possible. Perhaps the deal of the decade occurred at the Colby College meeting in 1971 where for $20 one received a clambake on the Belgrade Lakes and lodging Friday evening and breakfast and lunch on Saturday. Throughout the decade lunch on Saturday was about $3.50.

The program for each meeting remained the responsibility of the Section Chair throughout the 70's. In an effort to involve more of the membership in the operation of the organization, the responsibilities at the host institution moved from the Vice-Chair to a local arrangements committee. The annual fall meetings were held from 1970-1979 at Merrimack College (Ray Ozimkoski), Wellesley College (Torsten Norvig), Connecticut College (Eileen Hostinsky), Boston University (Don Blackett), the University of Lowell (Art Talkington), Simmons College (Margaret Menzin), Rhode Island College (Dick Howland), Merrimack College (John Royal), Bunker Hill Community College (Nancy Myers) and the University of Hartford (R. McGivney), where the local arrangements committee chairs are given in parentheses. The summer meetings were held in 1971 at Colby College (Lucille Zukowski), in 1973 at Bowdoin College (Dan Christie). From 1975 to 1979 they were held at the University of Connecticut (John Ryff), the University of New Hampshire (Gordon Raisbeck), Middlebury College (John Emerson), Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute (Robert Bourque) and the University of Maine (Clayton Dodge).

The list of invited speakers included many very prominent mathematicians: Henry Alder, President of the Association (1977-78), David Roselle, Secretary of the Association (1975-79 and 1980-84), Andrew Gleason, President of the AMS (1981-82), Garrett Birkhoff of Harvard University, Thomas Banchoff and Charles Strauss of Brown University, Donna Beers of Wellesley College, Dan Kleitman, James Munkres and J. R. Zacharias of MIT, Sue Whitesides of Dartmouth College, R. A. Rosenbaum and W. W. Comfort of Wesleyan College, Mary K. Bennett of the University of Massachusetts, Bruce Peterson of Middlebury College and Stanley Bezuska, S. J. of Boston College. A. B. Wilcox, Executive Director of the Association and Howard Eves (University of Maine) were invited lecturers twice in the decade. Panel discussion on topics ranging from applied mathematics to the improvement of college mathematics teaching were prevalent throughout the meetings of the 70's.

During the 70's the world of mathematics lost Richard Courant, L. J. Mordell, C. B. Allendoerfor, Marsden Morse, K. O. May, Richard Brauer and E. G. Begel. The Section lost some instrumental members too. Albert A. Bennett of Brown University, one of the founders of the NES/MAA died in 1971. J. R. K. Stauffer of the University of Rhode Island, Regional Chair for the High School Mathematics Examination died in 1975. Torsten Norvig, local arrangements chair for the 1971 meeting at Wellesley College, died in 1976. In 1976 the Section lost the able services of Dan Christie of Bowdoin College who had served in a myriad of capacities for the Section. See above for a detailed description. The 1978 meeting at Bunker Hill Community College was dedicated to his memory. In a fitting tribute to Dan, the Section instituted a lectureship in his behalf. The first Christie Lecture was given by John Milnor of Princeton University at the Hartford meeting in 1979.

At the June 1979 meeting several changes in the Section By-Laws were approved. The Executive Committee was expanded to include the Section Governor, the Immediate Past Chairperson, and the Two-Year Committee Representative. The election of the Section Chairperson in odd numbered years and the Vice-Chairperson, Secretary-Treasurer and the Two-Year College Representative in even numbered years, all elections taking place at the annual fall meeting, was approved. As a further harbinger of changes to come in the 80's, the Section initiated its Newsletter in the spring of 1979 under the editorship of Dorothy T. Meserve.

Even though not as drastic as the metamorphosis of Kafka's Gregor Samsa, the NES/MAA underwent a significant transformation during the 1980's. Early in the decade, as a move to make the Section more fiscally sound, the Section By-laws were amended to allow the Executive Committee to charge an appropriate registration fee at the Section meetings. Soon thereafter a committee consisting of Helen Bass, Bodh Gulati and Ernest Schlesinger proposed updating the Section By-laws to enable the Section (and the Association as well) to retain its tax-exempt status. The NES/MAA took this opportunity to restate in the By-laws its goal of assisting "in the improvement of the education in the mathematical sciences at the collegiate level by carrying out the purposes of the national organization". The Northeastern Section, comprised of the six New England states and Canadian Provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island remained throughout the decade either first or second in size of membership in the Association.

Throughout the 80's, the Association took decisive action to achieve its objectives of nurturing student talent, increasing public awareness, and making a national commitment to excellence in mathematics in both the nation's colleges and secondary schools. In line with these objectives, the Association introduced the magazine FOCUS as a more effective way to communicate news and announcements to the membership, and strengthen its ties with the mathematical community. Approval voting was adopted in an effort to encourage more people to take part in the election process. Sections were urged to begin Student Chapters, with Thurmon Whitley appointed to direct the organization of our Section's Student Chapters. The Association began offering a number of minicourses at the national meetings. Moreover, a repository for the archives of American mathematics was founded at the University of Texas in Austin, and a week each spring was designated as Mathematics Awareness Week. Locally, Gilbert Strang and Frank Morgan began to offer a series of Boston Workshops for Mathematics Faculty and, in the fall of 1984, Tom Banchoff held a interdisciplinary symposium at Brown University in honor of the 100th anniversary of the publication of Edwin Abbott's Flatland.

In the 80's, the NES/MAA sponsored eleven Short Courses and several Down East Graph Theory conferences, as well as twenty Section meetings, almost equaling the number of Section meetings held in the MAA/NES's first 25 years. The format of the meetings continued to include invited speakers and relevant panel discussions, but was adjusted to include student paper sessions, contributed paper sessions, and various computer and pedagogical workshops. The Section continued to attract distinguished speakers at its meetings. In particular, the Christie Lecturers who spoke, usually without either honorarium or travel allowances, were Gian-Carlo Rota, John Tate, John Wermer, Henry O. Pollak, Phil Davis, Tom Tucker, Ernst Snapper, Reuben Hirsh, Ron Graham, and Paul Schweitzer. Bodh Gulati was instrumental in his capacity as Section Publisher's Liaison in getting a number of book publishers to display their products at the meetings. A Microcomputer Software Exchange was begun by Thurmon Whitley and Steve Snover. The Section formed a Joint MAA/NCTM Articulation Committee, in which Steve Ingram (VT), Homer Bechtell (NH), Karl West (MA), Nancy Cetorelli (CT), and Pete Hayslett (ME) served as coordinator for their respective states. At the end of the decade, a Special Student Chapter Session, with an invited lecturer, was made part of the Section meeting.

All these changes would not have been possible without the dedicated guidance of the Executive Committees of the 80's. We were fortunate to not only have the services of Ann O'Neill, Don Small, and Jim Ward as Section Governors during the 80's, but in order to implement the changes it took the able leadership of our Section Chairpersons Roger Cooke, Jim Ward, Eric Numella, Thurmon Whitley, Steve Ingram, Dennis Luciano, and Karen Schroeder. In the 80's we became a more financially stable organization thanks to the efforts of our Secretary-Treasurers Shirley Blackett, Gordon Prichett, and Laura Kelleher, and to the Connecticut and Union Mutual Life Insurance Companies who underwrote the cost of publishing and mailing our Newsletter in the first half of the decade. We were also well served by our Two-Year College Representatives, Nancy Myers, Jean Smith, and Joe Menard. John Goulet, Dennis Luciano, and Joe Witkowski served as Coordinators of the Student Paper Sessions, while Gail Lange, Russ Rainville, Jim Tattersall, and Ed Sandifer served as Coordinators of the Contributed Papers Sessions. Ken Lane served as Public Information Officer for the Section and Pete Hayslett served as Section Placement Test Representative and liaison between the Section and the MAA Committee on Placement Examinations. Numerous members of the Section served on program committees, local arrangement committees or as workshop organizers, while others participated as speakers or presenters in such sessions. It was a genuine effort by many throughout the decade that enabled the Section to evolve and better serve the mathematical community. It should be noted that the road had been well paved by the generation that had initially organized the Section and guided it during its first 25 years.

During the decade, the mathematical world lost the expertise of R. H. Bing, E. J. McShane, George Polya, Julia Robinson, Stanislaw Ulam, Mark Kac, Mary P. Dolciani Halloran, Gabor Szego, Bert Mendelson, Charles B. Morrey Jr., and Henry Gehman. In our Section we lost the dedicated services of L. Aileen Hostinsky, Dick Howland, Dorothy Bernstein, and Stephanie Troyer.

In the 80's several of the Section's members were honored for their service to the mathematical community. Marshall Stone received the National Medal of Science, Margaret Bondorew (Medway, MA) and David Daniels (Longmeadow, MA) each received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching. Jean Smith received the AMATYC Mathematical Excellence Award. Charles Hadlock won the MAA Book Prize for his Carus Monograph Field Theory and its Classical Problems. Dennis Luciano and Gordon Prichett shared the George Polya Award. The Lester R. Ford Award was given to Stan Wagon. Marjorie Senechal was awarded the Carl B. Allendoerfer Award. Martha Zelinka of Weston, MA was named Governor-at-Large to represent the contingency of secondary school mathematics teachers. Katherine O'Brien received the Deborah Morton Award from Westbrook College honoring her for her mathematical expertise in the classroom and for her outstanding poetry. Eric Wepsic and Robert Southworth won honors representing the United States in the International Mathematical Olympiad. The MAA Certificate of Meritorious Service went to Don Small for exhibiting strong leadership, initiating innovative ideas, and his assiduous devotion in promoting NES/MAA. In addition, a room at the Association's National Headquarters in Washington, D. C. is to be dedicated to one of our founders and first Chairperson, Howard Eves.

I would be remiss at this point in archivist duties if I did not offer an appreciative thank you to Dot Meserve, Eric Nummella, Ken Lane, Phil Mahler, and Frank Battles for editing the Section's Newsletter. They have left a wonderful paper trail that was a joy to follow.

The 1990's saw the addition of many programs to the menu of offerings of the Section. In April of 1991 the Section held its first minicourse: "Using History in Teaching Calculus" given by V. Frederick Rickey and held at Bentley College. The original intention of these minicourses was to bring to the Section outstanding minicourses first presented at the national meetings. Minicourses were offered each following year until 1998. In the spring of 1992, the first round of regional dinner meetings were held, the very first one at Worcester Polytechnic Institution with the dinner talk given by Gil Strang. These were continued through the 90's and have provided a mechanism for networking with one's colleagues on a regional basis. This concept sparked a lot of interest from other Sections when we presented this concept at the national Section Officers Meeting. At the Spring Meeting of 1997 held at Merrimack College we had as part of the program a session for "Future Colleague" presentations and at the Fall of 1997 meeting held at Western New England College we had the first session of "New Faculty" presentations. As a result younger mathematicians have become more involved in Section activities. At the Spring Meeting of 1998 held at Keene State the first Battles Lecture was given by Jim Tattersall. This annual feature of the Spring Meeting is named for Frank Battles who served as Newsletter Editor from 1988-1998. Early in 1997 the Section's web page first appeared with Ross Gingrich of Southern Connecticut State University serving as Webmaster.

Several interesting joint efforts of the Section took place in the 90's. On October 30, 1993, the MAA/NES and Bentley College cosponsored a Student Career Conference, "Mathematics Opens Doors to the World". Ten workshops, each run by an expert in their field, were offered. The areas covered included medicine, computers and technology, banking, operations research, teaching, information systems, statistics, telecommunications, environmental sciences, and actuarial sciences. On October 21, 1994 the Section, in conjunction with the Mathematics and Music Departments of Regis College, presented "Mathematical Aspects of the Music of Bach". This was given by Victor Hill IV, the Thomas T. Read Professor of Mathematics at Williams College.

The Section's "Distinguished College or University Teaching Award" was first given at the Spring of 1992 meeting at Merrimack College to Frank Morgan of Williams College. The sectional winner is then eligible for the corresponding national award and five of the eight Section awardees in the 90's went on to also received the national award. The National MAA Certificate of Meritorious Service, which is given every five years, was awarded to Jim Tattersall of Providence College in 1972 and to Frank P. Battles and Laura L. Kelleher of Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 1997. The Section introduced the Howard Eves Award to honor those who had been of great service to the Section but did not receive the previously mentioned award. The first recipient was Howard Eves (1990), followed by Clayton Dodge (1995) both of the University of Maine.

June of 1996 marked the end of the annual section short course at the University of Maine which had been a popular weeklong event since it was started in 1979 by Don Small and Grattan Murphy. For many years, the running of this course was under the very capable direction of Clayton Dodge. These courses provided us with an opportunity to learn some mathematics and meet with a distinguished mathematician on the beautiful campus of UMaine in Orono. The social highlights included an afternoon at Acadia National Park followed by a pizza party back on campus and a Thursday night lobster bake.

We were most fortunate in the 90's to have many talented and creative Section Officers. More than at any other time in the Section's history, women played a very prominent role. The first three Section Chairs during this time period were Karen Schroeder of Bentley College (1989-1991), Laura Kelleher of Massachusetts Maritime Academy (1991-1993) and Donna Beers of Simmons College (1993-1995). Karen went on to serve the Section as Governor from 1994 to 1997 and Laura and Donna each became Governor in the next decade. Their outstanding leadership was followed by Rick Cleary of St. Michael's College (1995-1997) and Frank Ford of Providence College (1997-1999). We were lead into the next decade by Ed Sandifer of Western Connecticut State University. Don Small of Colby College finished up his three year term as Governor in 1991. In addition to Karen Schroeder, Dennis Luciano of Western New England College served two terms as Governor: 1991-1994 and 1997-2000. Our growing treasury and communications with the National Headquarters were ably handled by Laura Kelleher, Premjit Singh of Fitchburg State College, Marilyn Durkin of Bentley College, and Betsey Whitman of Framingham State. Our Two-Year College Representatives were Joe Menard of Community College of Rhode Island, Helene Savicki of Dean Junior College, Miguel Garcia of Gateway Community Technical College, Phil Mahler of Middlesex Community College and Kathy Bevelas of Manchester Community Technical College. Frank Battles, Frank Ford and Barry Schiller of Rhode Island College served as Newsletter Editors.

Section Meetings were held in November and June with ten in Massachusetts, three in Rhode Island, three in Connecticut, two in Maine, one in New Hampshire and one in Vermont. Our 40th anniversary meeting was hosted by Salem State College in 1995. We met twice at Merrimack College which gives this school the distinction of having hosted the most section meetings: five. Our most elegant meeting site was certainly the one at Salve Regina University in Newport, RI. The best attended meeting for the 90's was held at Framingham State College with 258 registrants. Our last meeting of the 90's was held at Bradford College whose closing was announced the following week.

We had many outstanding lectures at our Section Meetings in the '90's. The Christie Lectures given at the Fall Meeting were presented by John Conway, Rodica Simion, Peter Hilton, Jim Tattersall, Robert Rosenbaum, Doris Schattschneider, Roger Cooke, Michael Starbird, Gilbert Strang and Charles Hadlock. The Battles Lecture instituted in 1998 was given by Jim Tattersall and Robert Devaney. Other notable presenters include Herb Wilf, Dan Kleitman, Marjorie Senechal, Gerald Alexanderson, William Dunham, Ingrid Daubechies, Martha Siegel, James Leitzel, Ben Fusaro, John Ewing, H.S.M. Coxeter, Thomas Banchoff, Philip Davis, Joe Gallian, Margaret Cozzens, Carl Pomerance, Laurie Snell, Colin Adams, Persi Diaconis, Philip Uri Treisman, Ken Ross, Florence Fasanelli, and Ed Dubinsky.

The Northeastern Region was a popular choice for summer national meetings in the 90's. The Joint National Meeting was held at the University of Maine (Orono) in 1992 and at the University of Vermont in 1995. At the meeting at the University of Maine, Karen Schroeder dedicated The Howard Eves Room in the Washington headquarters of the MAA and presented a plaque and doorknob to Clayton Dodge, representing Howard Eves. The summer MAA Mathfest was held in Providence in 1999. In addition, the annual meeting of the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges was held in Boston in November of 1993.

Our Section bylaws were carefully looked at by a committee consisting of Dennis Luciano, Jim Tattersall and Karen Schroeder. The major changes proposed were to form an advisory council and add the Newsletter editor to the Executive Committee. These changes were approved by the membership and the National office in 1994.

The MAA celebrated its 75th anniversary in Columbus, Ohio in 1990. In a memorial parade, each section carried a banner indicating the section name and year of its founding. Ours was carried by Don Small. This banner was then on prominent display at all of our section meetings throughout the nineties. Each section was asked to write a history of the section. Jim Tattersall undertook this task for our Section and wrote a decade by decade history from the 50's through the 80's. Clayton Dodge chipped in a biography of Howard Eves, one of the founders of our Section; Jim Ward of Bowdoin College gave us a biography of Dan Christie for whom the Christie Lecture is named; and Don and Shirley Blackett of Boston University and Northeastern University respectively gave us a personal history of the Section. This and other historical information regarding the Section is available on the Section's website.

E-mail: gingrichr1@southernct.edu
URL: http://www.southernct.edu/organizations/nesmaa/history
Revised: August 14, 2005

"The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author and have not been reviewed or approved by Southern Connecticut State University."