Speaking of obits

George B. Thomas Jr., 92, Dies; Wrote Calculus Text
By JEREMY PEARCE
Published: November 13, 2006
NY Times

Speaking of obits, this is the calculus book I suffered through years ago.
This is the famous "Calculus and Analytic Geometry" textbook, the most
widely used intro to calculus in the US at that time.

My math prof was a Hungarian, Prof. Fary as I recall. He was highly
regarded, but he was not a teacher.

He never prepared for the day's class. A couple of minutes before the
lecture began, he would glance at the assignment in Thomas, nod his head
wisely, then procede.

"Noo, ve take zis var.i.ABLE and poot it in ze equashun,..., naa, vait a
minoot, vait a minoot" he said in his heavy Hungarian accent as he realized
he had something mixed up.

Finally, he'd get it straightened out, and proceed with an explanation that
was invariably more difficult than the proof he was trying to demonstrate.

I just folded Thomas and gave up.

Later, his teaching assistant would say as delicately as he could "I think I
better go over what Prof. Fary was talking about." If it wasn't for the TA I
would have flunked the course.

Islander...

Back in undergraduate school (Electrical Engineering) we were required
to take three quarters of electronic machines. I was offered the
opportunity to get into an experimental class, heavy on mathematics
which I enjoyed, so I jumped at the chance. The professor was a real
a--hole with an ego problem to boot. For the first final exam, he
handed out the exam for the *second* course, to challenge us, he said.
It was clearly a mistake, and I bailed to complete the requirement in
the normal course sequence. Out of the frying pan into the fire! Here,
the elderly professor literally read the text to us! The only thing
that he did well was to take roll. I have opposed tenure in
universities ever since!