Charles Wilderman Trigg (February 7, 1898 in Baltimore, MD—June 28, 1989 in San Diego, CA)obituary

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, July 9, 1989 was a mathematics writer and lecturer for many years at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. He was considered one of the foremost recreational mathematicians of the twentieth century and was the book review editor of the

Journal of Recreational Mathematics The ''Journal of Recreational Mathematics'' was an American journal dedicated to recreational mathematics, started in 1968. It had generally been published quarterly by the Baywood Publishing Company, until it ceased publication with the last issue ...

.Library Archives and Special Collections: Recreational Mathematics

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Education and career

Trigg got a B.S. in chemical engineering at

Baltimore Polytechnic Institute The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, colloquially referred to as BPI, Poly, and The Institute, is a US public high school founded in 1883. Established as an all-male manual trade / vocational high school by the Baltimore City Council and the ...

in 1914, another B.S. in chemical engineering at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

in 1917, and an M.A. at the

in 1931.Guide to the Charles W. Trigg Papers
Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution,

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, 2023 Until 1950 his main field of research was the production of coffee, first at the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh (1916-1920), and then at King Coffee Products in Detroit. He was granted five patents related to coffee processing. In 1950 he became a lecturer at the University of Southern California where he stayed until 1966. In 1967 he wrote his very popular book, ''Mathematical Quickies: 270 Stimulating Problems with Solutions''.''Mathematical Quickies: 270 Stimulating Problems with Solutions'' Review
by

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Review of ''Mathematical Quickies'' by Charles W. Trigg
Howard Eves, University of Maine A reviewer said, "For the mathematics enthusiast of any age or level of sophisitcation, this stimulating treasury of unusual math problems offers unlimited opportunity for mind-biggling recreation."

Publications

* 1973: "Palindromic Triangular Numbers" (with Raphael Robinson), J. Recr. Math. Vol. 6, pp. 146–147 * 1967: ''Mathematical Quickies: 270 Stimulating Problems with Solutions'', McGraw Hill, 1967, * 1934:
E69
Amer. Math. Monthly, Vol. 41, No. 5, May, 1934, p. 332

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trigg, Charles Baltimore Polytechnic Institute alumni University of Southern California alumni University of Southern California faculty University of Pittsburgh alumni 20th-century American mathematicians Recreational mathematicians Mathematics popularizers 1898 births 1989 deaths