David Vernon Widder was born March 25, 1898 in Harrisburg,

Pennsylvania. He attended the public schools in Harrisburg graduating at the top of his high school class in 1916. That fall he entered Harvard College where he was active in music and intramural crew. In freshman year he was particularly attracted to his math course with Professor Maxime Bôcher; and in sophomore

year he found a second course with Bôcher so fascinating that he decided to make mathematics his career. Then World War I intervened and he left Harvard to work as a civilian "computer" at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Fortunately, the war was soon over and Widder returned to Harvard in time to catch up and graduate, magna cum laude, with his class in 1920. Unfortunately, his mentor Bôcher had fallen victim to the influenza epidemic of 1918.

Graduation brought Widder a Sheldon traveling fellowship that took him to England, France, and Italy. Returning to Harvard as a graduate student in the fall of 1921, Widder earned the Master's degree in 1923, and the Doctorate in 1924, under the supervision of George David Birkhoff. That fall he started teaching at Bryn Mawr with the title of "associate," a rank lower than instructor. Two years later he won a National Research Council Fellowship to study at the Rice Institute in Houston and at the University of Chicago. Back at Bryn Mawr in the fall of 1927, he advanced quickly, becoming chairman of the department in 1929.

In 1931, Widder left his full professorship at Bryn Mawr and

returned to Cambridge as an assistant professor. His appointment was joint, two-thirds at Harvard and one-third at Radcliffe. Again he moved rapidly up the academic ladder and was promoted to a professorship in 1937.

Widder became chairman of the mathematics department in 1942. His term of six years included most of the difficult war years. The normal program of the Department continued, but with a reduced staff and student body, while the Army Specialized Training and Navy V-12 Programs imposed an enormous load of elementary teaching which was met by the recruitment of temporary teachers. The total staff rose to almost double its pre-war size.

When the war was over, the department was seriously depleted: of the seven full professors of 1940, four had been lost through retirement, deaths, and departure. By 1948, however, when Widder gave up the chairmanship, four new tenure appointments had been made that maintained Harvard's position among the leading mathematical centers. Widder himself would have disclaimed any credit for these appointments because he always felt that the chairman was merely a servant of the department.

Sixteen years later he again accepted administrative

responsibilities as Director of the Program for High School Teachers of Science and Mathematics, a post he held until his retirement in 1968.

Widder was a polished blackboard technician, a brilliant

expositor, and an extraordinarily successful teacher. In preparing his

classes he was always mindful of his first professor, Maxime Bôcher, whose picture hung over his desk. Widder's Advanced Calculus text of 1947 was hailed as a new standard in both clarity and rigor. The Crimson's Confidential Guide once said "Professor Widder could teach calculus to a rhinoceros."

Widder's mathematical work was in classical analysis. He

published more than a hundred papers, most of them devoted to the

development of the theory of integral transforms, a subject that plays a major role in the solution of differential equations. Early on he noted the close analogy between the Laplace transform and Dirichlet series, which enabled him to combine insights from both areas. His early work culminated in a noteworthy monograph entitled The Laplace Transform, published in 1941, and still regarded as the best introduction to the subject. In the postwar period he embarked on a long collaboration with his student I. I. Hirschman, studying various extensions of the Laplace transform. After about a dozen joint papers they published another monograph, The Convolution Transform, in 1955. Widder's subsequent work

was largely concerned with applying the theory of integral transforms to the study of some of the important differential equations of physics, particularly the heat equation. For this equation he proved an important uniqueness theorem for solutions positive in a strip. In 1975, he summarized this work in a book, entitled The Heat Equation. His last paper, The Airy Transform, was published in 1979, at the age of 81.

In 1939, Dave married Vera Ames, a mathematician who shared many of his other interests. They were both skilled pianists; in their living room stood two grand pianos on which they explored the four-hand piano literature. They loved bridge which they played seriously, but not for blood. Dave enjoyed all kinds of games, not so much as a competitor, but as a connoisseur. If an opponent made a difficult shot at billiards or a fine save at tennis, Dave enjoyed it as much as if he had done it himself. He had an extraordinary personality, full of kindness and good-will. If a difference arose within the department, he could find the middle ground. He always had words of encouragement for his students and his colleagues.

He saw the best side of everyone.

In his seventies Dave suffered a severe heart attack but, with the aid of a pacemaker, he was able to resume many of his former activities. As the years went on he came to Harvard less frequently and then, shortly after his ninety-second birthday, he had another heart attack that put him into a rapid and irreversible decline. He died at home on July 8, 1990. He is survived by his wife, two children, David Charles Widder and Edith Anne Smith, and two

grandchildren.

Respectfully submitted,

Garrett Birkhoff

Andrew M. Gleason, Chairman

George W. Mackey

 

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Copyright 1998 President and Fellows of Harvard College