Bill Hatcher -- an obituary

Bill Hatcher -- an obituary

[Peter Freyd]

 [Bill's category papers were concerned mostly with categories of algebras, his
 non-mathematical works with the spreading of the Baha'i faith.]

                               The Globe and Mail
                                  29 May 2006

                                  LIVES LIVED

                               Facts & Arguments

                               William S. Hatcher

                                 Roshan Danesh
                                   663 words
                                      A18

Husband, father, mathematician, philosopher, pursuer of authenticity. Born Sept.
20, 1935, in Charlotte, N.C. Died Nov. 27, 2005, in Stratford, Ont., of a heart
attack, aged 70.

I always looked up to my uncle, William Hatcher. Truly, almost everyone who met
him looked up to him. At 6-foot-6, and with the physical size and booming voice
that betrayed his roots in the deep south of the United States, he was pretty
much always the largest presence wherever he found himself.

But for my uncle Bill, physical presence was merely the reflection of the other
ways in which he was a towering figure.

His mind was what made him most well-known. He brought an iron-clad precision
and clarity to the most ubiquitous, essential, and seemingly eternal questions
of human life. In his early 20s, he began contemplating a logical proof of the
existence of God. When he fully completed the proof some decades later, he
travelled over many years to universities across Canada, the United States, and
Europe, where he explicated the proof to packed audiences.

The logical proof was one of Bill's most characteristic achievements. It was the
perfect blending of the two passions of his mind science and religion.

A mathematician and philosopher at Universiti Laval for more than 30 years, he
was listed as one of the eight Platonist philosophers of the latter half of the
20th century in the respected Encylopidie Philosophique Universelle. His
contribution to the study of religion, and in particular the Baha'i faith a
subject on which he co-authored the seminal introductory text led him to be
recognized as one of the greatest scholars of Baha'i studies.

But it was uncle Bill's qualities of heart that I will remember most. He was
staunchly committed to the pursuit of authentic relationships and the principle
that love is expressed through self-sacrifice, service, altruism, and putting
others ahead of oneself. He captured this theme in his book Love, Power, and
Justice: The Dynamics of Authentic Morality. One time he said I should simply
look around me when walking down the street and reflect on my reaction to those
I saw. He was giving me a lesson about how to stay conscious of my own
prejudices, my own self-interested commitments which, he insisted, were
reflections of a failure to authentically love and relate to other human beings.
Uncle Bill constantly pursued authenticity in his own life, and strived to live
a life characterized by service to others. Of course, he sometimes failed, but
he often succeeded. Sometimes his actions took the form of grand gestures such
as moving to Russia at a dangerous time because there were contributions he
could make as the society emerged from the communist era. Other times it was in
the simple sweetness of how he always was prepared to listen to one's ideas,
share his thoughts, and encourage one to do better.

Like all high-achievers, Bill was constantly striving to do better. In the last
few years, he seemed to become a little doubtful of whether his myriad
accomplishments (raising three children with his wife Judith, training thousands
of young minds, publishing more than 50 books and articles, being a leader of
the Baha'i community of Canada and one of its leading scholars) were enough. To
those of us who knew him intimately and loved him dearly, it was hard to take
such insecurities seriously. My uncle Bill touched the hearts of thousands of
people, and helped educate, refine, and inspire their minds. The gifts he gave
others through his writings and teaching, and his acts of kindness, were more
than we could fairly expect from anybody. The gift he gave me was clear: Be
humble, strive as hard as you can, and be a lover of humanity. I will cherish
that gift forever.

  Roshan is William Hatcher's nephew.
  Illustration