Re: Dietmar Schumacher

[tholen@mathstat.yorku.ca]

Dear Bob,

This is very unexpected and sad news indeed.

Without him knowing, Dietmar was one of my early heroes when, under the
direction of Nico Pumpluen, I started my Master's thesis project on
algebraic theories and monads in early 1970. His paper on
"Minimale und maximale Tripelerzeugende und eine Bemerkung zur
Tripelbarkeit" ("Minimal and maximal generators for triples and a
remark on tripleability")
had just appeared in Arch. Math. (1969), and I felt very lucky when
shortly afterwards I got hold of a copy of his Ph. D. thesis written
under the direction of the general algebraist Walter Felscher at the
University of Freiburg, on which the Archiv article was based.

I think that it was only in the 1980s that I first met Dietmar. When I
told him then how much his Ph. D. thesis had helped me organize my
Master's thesis, he replied "Ach, das war doch alles nur trivialer
Quatsch" ("Oh, that was all just trivial nonsense").

He was so talented and knowledgeable and yet so modest that he just
couldn't ever admit to having done something important or beautiful!

He'll be missed by many of us!

Walter





Quoting Robert Pare <R.Pare@Dal.Ca>:

> It is with great sadness that I announce that my longtime friend and
> collaborator,
> Dietmar Schumacher, died on Wednesday September 17, 2014, of a
> massive stroke.
>
> It was in 1971, when he took up his position at Acadia University,
> that he left a note
> on my office door introducing himself and suggesting we meet to
> discuss category
> theory. We did and that was the start of our long collaboration. We
> also started, in 1972,
> the category seminar which still runs today, 42 years later. For many
> years  he would drive
> the 100 kms from Wolfville every week to attend the seminar, and
> drive back  afterwards.
> He would sometimes speak in the seminar or, if not, stimulated
> discussion with his penetrating
> questions. The last few years, he came less often as he found the
> drive tiring, but invariably
> he would read up on the topic of the week and always emailed me a
> question or two about it.
> He kept up his interest in category theory until the end. He came to
> the first seminar this year,
> just two weeks ago, looking strong and fit as ever.
>
> We'll miss his wry sense of humour. His way of apologizing for some
> little thing, and then
> apologizing for apologizing.
>
> Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.
>
> Bob




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