Margaret Willerding
Margaret Frances Willerding (1919–2003)
Early life and education
Willerding was born on April 26, 1919, in
After a year working as a schoolteacher,[3] she went to Saint Louis University for graduate study in mathematics,[2] choosing it as the best of the two universities local enough to allow her to continue living with her parents,[3] and despite her mother's dismissal of her academic ambitions.[4] During this time she continued working as a schoolteacher to support herself, before obtaining a fellowship in the final year of her program, the first woman to do so.[3] She earned a master's degree in 1943 and completed her Ph.D. in 1947.[1][3]
Her dissertation, Determination of All Classes of Positive Quaternary Quadratic Forms Which Represent All (Positive) Integers, was supervised by
While she was still working on her doctorate, Ross moved to the University of Notre Dame to become department chair, and she commuted there by train to visit him. She became engaged to an older physicist at Notre Dame, Eugene Guth, but did not end up marrying him, and Ross's plans to hire her at Notre Dame also did not work out.[2][4]
Career and later life
After completing her doctorate, Willerding became a mathematics instructor at Washington University in St. Louis, beginning in 1947.[2] However, after being told that she would be passed over for promotions in favor of male faculty members, and being asked to pour tea for faculty wives at a mathematics meeting held at the university, she left after a single semester. Instead, she returned to Harris Teachers College and began focusing on mathematics education instead of mathematical research.[2][4] During this time she also became active in the Missouri Section of the Mathematical Association of America.[2]
In 1954 she started her work as mathematical problems editor for School Science and Mathematics, a position she held until 1976 despite a colleague undercutting her in the early 1960s by suggesting to the journal's editor-in-chief that she was too old for the position.[2][9]
She moved in 1956 to San Diego State University,[2][1] and retired as a professor emeritus in 1976.[1] She died on December 29, 2003.[2][1]
Books
Willerding wrote over 30 mathematical textbooks.[2] They include:
- The Business of Mathematics (Prindle, Weber & Schmidt, 1977)[10]
- College Algebra and Trigonometry (with Stephen Hoffman, Wiley, 1971; 2nd ed., 1975)[11]
- Elementary Mathematics: Its Structure and Concepts (Wiley, 1966)[12]
- A First Course in College Mathematics: Module 4—The Integers and Their Operations; Equations and Inequalities; Squares, Square Roots, and Similar Triangles (Prindle, Weber & Schmidt, 1975)[13]
- Mathematics: The Alphabet of Science (with Ruth A. Hayward, 2nd ed., Wiley, 1972)[14]
- Modern Intermediate Algebra (2nd ed., Wiley, 1975)[15]
- The Numbers Game (Prindle, Weber & Schmidt, 1977)[16]
- A Probability Primer (Prindle, Weber & Schmidt, 1968)[17]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "Margaret Frances Willerding", San Diego Union-Tribune, December 31, 2003, retrieved 2022-04-10 – via Legacy.com
- ^ S2CID 188856599; see Section 7.5, "Margaret Willerding", pp. 128–131.
- ^ ISBN 9781557531223
- ^ ISBN 9780262632461
- ^ Margaret Willerding at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- Zbl 0032.26603.
- ^ Zbl 0987.11026.
- Zbl 0987.11027.
- ^ Review of The Business of Mathematics:
- Spangler, Richard C. (October 1977), The Mathematics Teacher, 70 (7): 624, )
- ^ Reviews of College Algebra and Trigonometry:
- Birnbaum, Saul (May 1972), The Mathematics Teacher, 65 (5): 441, )
- MacIlwaine, P. S. W. (October 1972), The Mathematical Gazette, 56 (397): 245, )
- Skeen, Kenneth C. (October 1975), The Mathematics Teacher, 68 (6): 503, )
- ^ Reviews of Elementary Mathematics: Its Structure and Concepts:
- Garot, E. O. (November 1966), Mathematics Magazine, 39 (5): 301–302, )
- Snader, Daniel W. (November 1966), The Arithmetic Teacher, 13 (7): 601–602, )
- ^ Review of A First Course in College Mathematics: Module 4:
- Spangler, Richard C. (February 1976), The Mathematics Teacher, 69 (2): 167, )
- ^ Reviews of Mathematics: The Alphabet of Science:
- Door, E. A. (December 1972), The Mathematical Gazette, 56 (398): 339–340, )
- Peak, Philip (January 1973), The Mathematics Teacher, 66 (1): 55, )
- Rising, Gerald R. (February 1973), The Arithmetic Teacher, 20 (2): 148, )
- Selkirk, K. E. (May 1978), Mathematics in School, 7 (3): 34, )
- Turner, V. Dean (May 1969), The Mathematics Teacher, 62 (5): 427, )
- ^ Review of Modern Intermediate Algebra:
- Skeen, Kenneth C. (December 1975), The Mathematics Teacher, 68 (8): 698, )
- ^ Review of The Numbers Game:
- Johnston, Hiram D. (December 1977), The Mathematics Teacher, 70 (9): 790, )
- ^ Review of A Probability Primer:
- Miller, David W. (February 1969), Management Science, 15 (6): B345, )