The Man Who Loved Mathematics

 

The Man Who Loved Mathematics

In my second year of graduate work, Dr. McShane proposed a master’s thesis subject for me, one involving a different approach to Stieltjes integration (You don’t need to know what that is). I thought that I had a general idea of what needed to be done, but for the sake of me I couldn’t seem to make any progress. To tell the truth, I couldn’t even get started on it. I sat in the Math library poring over papers on Stieltjes integration without understanding much of the material, especially insofar as it might apply to my problem.

Eventually, either Fortune or Providence smiled on me – in the form of another student. Dave Lowdenslager was one of those academic types that chooses to live a life within the confines of Academia. He was single and under none of the pressures that most of us have: to get a degree and start into a professional situation with an income that would support a family. He was not at UVa during my first year of graduate work. He had taken some time off from his graduate studies to teach undergraduate math at another university, but now had returned to complete the work on his doctoral dissertation. He had completed all necessary course work for his degree, but he would sit in on a class that was on a subject that he had not taken – just for “fun”. One such course was “Topological Groups”. This course had the rest of us completely baffled, but not Dave. While we were struggling to copy down the maze of mathematical symbols with which the professor was filling the blackboard Dave would carry on a conversation with him about his approach to the problem, asking meaningful questions to clear up any confusion that he might have.

This young man, whom I hardly knew on a personal basis approached me when he saw me sitting in the Math library, feverishly making notes about Stieltjes integration from a set of math publications. He asked what kind of problem I was working on. When I explained my problem to him, his face brightened as if to say, “Now, that’s interesting!” He sat down and began to talk. He didn’t tell me how to solve my problem; he didn’t even mention Stieltjes integration. But he reviewed the basic concepts of integration theory in such a way that I began to grasp a true understanding of that which I had previously only known. This was one of the many times in my life that the crucial difference between mere knowledge and real understanding was enforced. And as a result of that half-hour lecture, I was able to develop an approach to my problem and eventually solve it.

I was grateful to Dave for taking the time and trouble to sit down with me and teach me some of what he knew about math. But in my heart I knew that he didn’t do it as an altruistic act of kindness. He was happy that he had found one of those rare situations where he could share his knowledge and enthusiasm for such an unlikely subject with someone who was interested in it and grateful for his sharing.

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