BW bio for Fred Linton (or: 50 years of it, at 6 years per inch)

1948-54: BW.

1954-58: Yale; prospective major(s):

54-55: Chemistry, Physics, Math; Amusing highlight:

Freshman Prom double-date with Lynne & Gail Belaief and ... Dick Cavett;

55-56: Physics, Math.

56-57: Math, ?? French ?? (wouldn't Mlle. G. have been ecstatic!)

57-58: Math, period.

1958-63: Columbia, grad school in Math; highlights: MA (math), 1959; PhD (math), 1963; and:

Summer of 58: took up folkdancing;

Summer of 60: translated Carathéodory's Mass und Integral und Ihre Algebraisierung for Chelsea Press;

Summer of 61: "Topology Circus" at UCB (Berkeley);

Summer of 62: "Relativity Circus" at UCSB (Santa Barbara) and "Geometry Circus" at UCB (Berkeley);

Spring of 63: trailed thesis advisor to Berkeley, there to write my thesis.

1963-2004: Teaching at Wesleyan, Middletown, CT; highlights:

63-64: First teaching year at Wesleyan. Couldn't stand Middletown's provincial isolation.

64-65: Academic year as researcher at University of Chicago; met future first wife here.

65-66: Second teaching year at Wesleyan. Married. Still couldn't stand the isolation.

66-67: Academic year at Zurich's ETH. Resolved to make Europe a recurrent part of my life.

67-69: Two more teaching years at Wesleyan. Avoided isolation by renting in New Haven.

69-70: Academic visit to Dalhousie U. in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

70-75: More teaching at Wesleyan, living in New Haven. Bought 36 Everit Street in 1972.

1975 (calendar year): One horrible year as department chairman. Never again! (Don't ask.)

1976 (spring): Visiting quarter at Berkeley. What a relief after chairing at Wesleyan!

76-98: Still more teaching (full time) at Wesleyan; highlights:

1977: divorced first wife (kept house at 36 Everit Street, and cats Zog and Mollie);

1983: met future second wife (Barbara) on the Poniatowski Bridge, Warsaw, Poland; married 1990;

1988: bilateral herniorrhaphy (obligatory mid-life surgical intervention, and end of folkdance career);

1993: adopted second round of cats (Sweetie and Beauty, followed soon after by more);

1997: founded joint venture, The Lintons' Video Press (publishing books and videos),

with WWW presence at: http://b.mikolajewska.home.att.net/booknook/ .

98-04: Still teaching, but rather less, at Wesleyan, under "partial early retirement" program.

Peak domestic cat population: 9 (during 2002-3); current census: 5.

Folks I've learned the most from, over the years:

Victor Harris (math, BW)

Jeanne Gallairand (French, BW)

Ruth Hamilton (writing, BW)

John Carl Horton (thinking, BW)

Harrison W. Moore (ethics, BW)

Frank Quigley (math, Yale)

Samuel Eilenberg (math, Columbia)

Aaron Galuten (editor, Chelsea Press)

Albrecht Dold (math, Columbia)

Saunders Mac Lane (math, U. Chicago)

Contact information (please copy and paste into your mailer): <fejlinton@usa.net> =or= <FLinton@Wesleyan.edu>

Last updated: 23 May 2004