Thomas William Hungerford (March 21, 1936 – November 28, 2014) was an American mathematician who worked in

algebra Algebra is a branch of mathematics that deals with abstract systems, known as algebraic structures, and the manipulation of expressions within those systems. It is a generalization of arithmetic that introduces variables and algebraic ope ...

and

mathematics education In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out Scholarly method, scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical know ...

. He is the author or coauthor of several widely used and widely cited Citations at docjax.net the document search engine
/ref> textbooks covering high-school to graduate-level mathematics. From 1963 until 1980 he taught at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

and then at

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in oper ...

until 2003. From 2003–2014 he was at

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Missi ...

. Hungerford had a special interest in promoting the use of technology to teach mathematics.

Early life and career

Hungerford was born in

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, adjacent to Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, 26th-most populous municipality in Illinois, with a population of 54,318 as of the 2020 census. Oak Park was first se ...

, in 1936. At age 16, he moved to

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, where he attended

St. Louis University High School St. Louis University High School (SLUH) is an all-male Jesuit high school in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1818, it is the oldest secondary educational institution in the United States west of the Mississippi River, and one of the largest pri ...

and was named its valedictorian. After high school, Hungerford was educated at the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwick and Thomas F. Mulledy in 1843 under the auspices of the Society of Jesus. ...

, graduating in 1958 with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

, ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

''. He pursued graduate studies at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in mathematics in 1963 under the supervision of

Saunders Mac Lane Saunders Mac Lane (August 4, 1909 – April 14, 2005), born Leslie Saunders MacLane, was an American mathematician who co-founded category theory with Samuel Eilenberg. Early life and education Mac Lane was born in Norwich, Connecticut, near w ...

. Throughout his career he wrote more than a dozen widely used mathematics textbooks, ranging from high school to graduate level.

Bibliography

Graduate

* 1974 Algebra (Graduate Texts in Mathematics #73). Springer Verlag.

Undergraduate

* 1997 Abstract Algebra: An Introduction, 2nd Edition. Cengage. * 2005 Contemporary College Algebra and Trigonometry, 2nd Edition. Cengage. * 2005 Contemporary College Algebra, 2nd Edition. Cengage. * 2006 Contemporary Trigonometry. Cengage. * 2009 Contemporary Precalculus, 5th Edition (with Douglas J. Shaw). Cengage. * 2011 Mathematics with Applications, 10th Edition (with Margaret L. Lial and John P. Holcomb, Jr). Pearson. * 2011 Finite Mathematics with Applications, 10th Edition (with Margaret L. Lial and John P. Holcomb, Jr). Pearson. * 2013 Abstract Algebra: An Introduction, 3rd Edition, Cengage.

High school

* 2002 Precalculus: A Graphing Approach (with Irene Jovell and Betty Mayberry). Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hungerford, Thomas William American algebraists 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians College of the Holy Cross alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Washington faculty Cleveland State University faculty Saint Louis University mathematicians People from Oak Park, Illinois 1936 births 2014 deaths Mathematicians from Illinois