Beulah May Armstrong (1895–1965) was an American mathematician and university professor. She was one of the few American women awarded a PhD in math before World War II.Green, Judy, and Jeanne LaDuke. ''Supplementary Material for Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD's''. American Mathematical Society, 2009.

Biography

Beulah was born November 18, 1895 in Sterling, Kansas, the third of five children of Lillie J. Detter and John Allen Armstrong, both Pennsylvania natives. In 1900 the family lived in Enterprise Township, Ford County, Kansas, where her father was a farmer, and by 1910 they had moved to Hutchinson, Kansas. Beulah graduated from Hutchinson High School and then attended

Baker University Baker University is a private university in Baldwin City, Kansas, United States. Founded in 1858, it was the first four-year university in Kansas and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Baker University is made up of four schools. Th ...

in Baldwin City, a co-educational

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

school in eastern Kansas. After receiving her bachelor 's degree from Baker University in 1917, she received a scholarship to attend the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

, and in 1918 she earned her master's degree there. Her master's thesis was titled, ''Simple And Complete K-Points in Continuous and in Modular Projective Spaces''. She was offered an additional scholarship to continue her studies at Kansas, but did not accept it apparently because she was keen on doing graduate work at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

where she was offered a scholarship for the academic year 1918–1919 and a fellowship for the following year. She earned her PhD there in 1921 under

George Abram Miller George Abram Miller (31 July 1863 – 10 February 1951) was an American mathematician, an early group theorist. Biography At the age of seventeen, Miller began school-teaching to raise funds for higher education. In 1882, he entered Franklin an ...

with the dissertation: ''Mathematical Induction in Group Theory''. She taught at the University of Illinois from 1921 to 1931, was an associate from 1931 to 1945, then became an assistant professor from 1945 to 1959, and finally an associate professor at Illinois from 1959 until her retirement as an associate

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

in 1963. She was heavily involved with advising aspiring math teachers while they studied with her at Illinois and she taught many of the math courses they were scheduled to take. In addition, she was one of the instructors for the University's

correspondence courses Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

. She was active in a number of organizations on and off campus. She was secretary-treasurer of the

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...

honor society and was a member of

Kappa Delta Pi Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society in Education () is an American honor society for education. It was formed in 1911 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as one of the first discipline-specific honor societies. History Kappa Delta Pi grew out ...

. She was listed in the Who's Who of American Women in the late 1950s. She died suddenly at age 69 at her home on February 22, 1965, in Urbana, Illinois. She was buried in Fairlawn Cemetery, Hutchinson, Kansas and, in her will, she bequeathed $1,000 to her first alma mater Baker University.

Memberships

Organizational affiliations, according to Green. *

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

(AMS) *

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

(MAA) *

Sigma Delta Epsilon Graduate Women in Science (GWIS), formerly known as Sigma Delta Epsilon (ΣΔΕ), is an international professional organization for women in science. It was established as a scientific women's fraternity in 1921 at Cornell University, United State ...

* Sigma Xi *

Pi Mu Epsilon Pi Mu Epsilon ( or PME) is the U.S. honorary national mathematics society. The society currently has chapters at 371 institutions across the U.S. History Pi Mu Epsilon was founded at Syracuse University on , by Professor Edward Drake Roe, Jr. Pi ...

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Beulah May 1895 births 1965 deaths American mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American women mathematicians 20th-century American women academics Baker University alumni University of Kansas alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Graduate Women in Science members