From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/9324 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Ernest G. Manes" Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Fred Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2017 21:02:02 -0400 Message-ID: Reply-To: "Ernest G. 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Fred E. J. Linton. For most of the time I knew him, I kept secret what E. and J. stand for, being of the impression that almost nobody knew and it was not my place to tell. I think it is OK to tell you now. Ernest and Julius. Fred spent his whole teaching career at Wesleyan University in Middletown Connecticut. I entered the graduate program there in 1963-64, at the tender age of 20. I do not recall meeting Fred during that first year. In my second year, I developed an interest in categories from my coursework. But Fred wasn't there. He was visiting Mac Lane in Chicago. By the end of the second semester, I knew I wanted to meet him. By good fortune, we both attended the NSF summer program (six weeks long!) in homological algebra at Bowdoin College (principal lecturer Ernst Snapper of Dartmouth). We met right away, and immediately played tennis. I have two memories regarding Fred from this time. (1) Everybody ate lunch and dinner in the dining hall. At one lunch, they served chili. In order to break up the crackers into small pieces, Fred put the packet on the table and applied great force with his elbow. The second time, Alex Rosenberg held his ears. (2) As many of you have noticed, Fred often napped in between talks at a conference. Perhaps you took this as a sign of age. Not so. Fred always did this. At the Bowdoin conference 52 years ago, there was also a music camp with many prominent musicians in residence. Two violinists came over to Fred, asleep on a chair in the lounge, and played Brahm's Lullibye. It didn't wake him up. In Middletown, Fred was very active in folk dancing. His group was very professional and gave quite astounding performances at local venues. This was a major interest in his life. In 1966, we arranged with Wesleyan that I could follow Fred to Zurich in order to attempt to write a thesis. About a week before we were to leave, I asked him about the research focus of the group of category theorists visiting the ETH. He simply replied "triples" with no further explanation. I wondered what on Earth I was getting into. Fred often began a conversation with word play, even if he hadn't seen you for years. His puns drew on English, German, French and Italian. Once when the two of us were trying to negotiate downtown San Juan (at one of Jon Beck's conferences) with neither of us knowing Spanish, he asked for information in Italian; he got strange looks, but it seemed to work. I'm not sure how I settled on "A Triple Miscellany" for a thesis title, but Fred preferred several variants. His favorite was "A Missal tripleary". As recently as a few months ago in Schenectady, Fred chided me for not using ..Missal... Beginning 1969-1970, Fred and I joined a lively group of category theorists for postdocs at Dalhousie University. The one shortcoming for Fred was the lack of a good folk dancing group, so he started one for amateurs. He somehow convinced my wife and I to join. We had fun, but I never learned the Miserlou. Recently I mentioned the names of one or two from that group to Fred. He had kept up with them. I am a graduate of Los Angeles High School and so I grew up steeped in the culture of fixing cars. Fred turned to me for advice on various car problems. One time, his engine just wouldn't start and he asked for help. There was no fuel coming through to the carburetor. Now any California kid knows that either the fuel pump was shot (usually the problem) or the fuel line to the pump was clogged (unlikely). To eliminate the second case, I explained to Fred that if he removed the fuel cap and blew into the tank, I could watch the fuel line (which I had removed from the fuel pump) to see if gasoline was coming out. As it turns out, the fuel line was indeed plugged. As a result the back pressure sprayed gasoline in Fred's eye and he had to visit the emergency room. Fred was a very kind person and often would expend considerable effort to do something good for somebody else. It was his style not to end up in a situation where plans he had promised did not materialize. When he attempted to do things for me, the first I heard about it was when it happened. As an example, I had mentioned to him early on that the Wesleyan stipend might be difficult to live on in Switzerland. He said nothing. After attending the first lecture (very memorable for me --Jon Beck had defined what a triple is), and after the tea and cookies that followed, Fred told me to follow him. We were joined by a gentleman I didn't know. He and Fred spoke in German and it was more complicated than I could follow. Then we proceeded to walk for ten minutes in a basement labyrinth that equaled any in a big city hospital, eventually coming to a very dark alcove with a small "cage". The first gentleman spoke at some length with the gentleman inside the cage; this was in Swiss German which neither Fred nor I could follow. Eventually a piece of paper was produced which I was asked to sign. They then put in my hand the biggest pile of cash I have ever personally held in this life. It was enough for my wife and I to eat on for the balance of the year. (Of course, Beno Eckmann gets credit for that too). My mathematical career was jump-started by the fact that Saunders Mac Lane convened a seminar at Chicago based on my thesis, only four months after it became clear I would finish. I realize now that Fred must have played a substantial role in making this happen. Damn! I miss him. Ernie Manes [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]