From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/9843 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Michael Barr, Prof. Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: John Gray Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2019 15:29:49 +0000 Message-ID: Reply-To: Michael Barr, Prof. Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Injection-Info: blaine.gmane.org; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:195.159.176.226"; logging-data="25046"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@blaine.gmane.org" To: "categories@mta.ca" Original-X-From: majordomo@mlist.mta.ca Mon Feb 25 17:13:39 2019 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from smtp2.mta.ca ([198.164.44.55]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1gyIsp-0006KH-Kg for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Mon, 25 Feb 2019 17:13:35 +0100 Original-Received: from mlist.mta.ca ([138.73.1.63]:46277) by smtp2.mta.ca with esmtp (Exim 4.80) (envelope-from ) id 1gyIrx-0006JE-Sz; Mon, 25 Feb 2019 12:12:41 -0400 Original-Received: from majordomo by mlist.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gyIqb-0003bG-JI for categories-list@mlist.mta.ca; Mon, 25 Feb 2019 12:11:17 -0400 Accept-Language: en-CA, en-US Content-Language: en-CA Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:9843 Archived-At: ------------------------------------ From: Michael Barr, Prof. Sent: February 25, 2019 11:24 To: Bob Rosebrugh Subject: John Gray I don't know if the cat list ever posted anything about John Gray's death. = Here is something a friend in Urbana sent me when I asked about John (whom= I hadn't heard from in years and wondered about) written by one of his son= s. If you think it appropriate, you could send to the list. Mike ---------------------------------------------- John Gray URBANA - John Walker Gray died May 17, 2017, at age 85. It was not unexpect= ed. He died as he lived, in a comfortable and well-planned manner, his needs an= ticipated, and care taken that his affairs be in order. He was there for my= first breath, and I was there for his last, as is good and right. His fore= sight gave him, at the end of his time, an interval of rest and contentment= that all deserve, but few are afforded. Born to a merchant, he imagined for himself a life of the mind. Through har= d work and patient dedication, he made that a reality, becoming an erudite = and well-traveled man, a talented pianist and a mathematician of note in se= veral fields. The arc of his life was a work of his own devising, and it wa= s good. John went from an undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College in 1953 to h= is doctorate from Stanford University in 1957 as a student of the renowned = Charles Loewner. His doctoral thesis on contact structures, published in th= e Annals of Mathematics, remains of interest today, having been cited nearl= y a hundred times in recent years alone. As a professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois, John supervise= d five Ph.D. students and at the end of his career served as director of gr= aduate studies. His research interests centered on category yheory, a study= of patterns common to many parts of mathematics including algebra, topolog= y, logic and computer science. His 1974 book on formal category theory has = long been a standard reference. John contributed to categorical semantics o= f programming languages, including versions of the lambda calculus, and he = attracted several of the founders and early employees of Wolfram Research t= o Urbana. He made his mark, advanced the art, and his students take a part = of him into the future. John was preceded in death by his wife of many years, Eva Wirth Gray, who i= ntroduced him to Switzerland where he spent happy sabbatical years and wher= e his only daughter, Elizabeth, died at age 15. Of his siblings, Corinne, S= uzanne and Nancy, only the last survives him, as do his nephews Allen, Tom = and Kayvon. Yiling, Laur and Tony preceded him in death. Of his own, he is = survived by his sons, Stephen and Theodore; and three grandchildren, Addie,= Emma and Connor. He is also survived by all but one of a dedicated group o= f caregivers who became his second family late in life. To this family - Br= ittany, Mary, Jan, Ashley and the tragically departed Tiffany - his first f= amily extends their most heartfelt thanks for the love and care he received= right up until the last moment of his life. John Walker Gray executed the story of his life well and completed it with = grace. He will be missed by all who knew him. [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]