Ralph Stanton Dies at 86

Math Faculty Mourns The Passing of a Tie-tan

mathNEWS regrets to inform our readers that Ralph Stanton, founder of the University of Waterloo's Faculty of Mathematics and Honourary Doctor of Mathematics from the same, has passed away at the age of 86.

In 1957, Stanton became the head of the Department of Mathematics at the recently-established University of Waterloo, leaving the University of Toronto. In 1960, the Faculty of Arts was established, with the Department of Mathematics its largest. Stanton, however, dreamed of creating a distinct Faculty for Mathematics, and on July 1, 1967, his dream was realised. To this day, he (and his habit of wearing gaudy ties) is honoured through the Faculty's unofficial mascot, the pink tie.

The same year, Ralph Stanton left the University of Waterloo for York University, where he spent three years before moving to the University of Manitoba. He headed the Department of Computer Science there for several years, and he continued to research and teach there until he announced his retirement in April of this year.

On April 21, Ralph Stanton died of cardiac arrest at the St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg. However, he lives on, and always will, in the hearts and the minds of the students and faculty of the Math Faculty he was instrumental in creating.

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