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15495 Anderson, Kenneth Wayne
February 02, 1924 - June 12, 1975

usma1946-C1



MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly Dec '76

Kenneth Wayne Anderson No. 15495  Class of 1946 Died 13 June 1975 in Binghamton, New York, aged 51 years. Interment, Binghamton, New York.


Kenneth W. Anderson has left a unique legacy of decency and courage to all who knew him. Bearing his own discomfort in silence, he listened patiently to the problems of those about him and gave comfort where he could. Confined to a wheelchair in 1954, he completed his doctoral work and became a respected university professor and academic administrator.

Kenneth Anderson was born in Ottawa, Illinois, on 2 February 1924, the son of Oscar Elmer Anderson and Ruth Ebert Anderson. An honor graduate of Kankakee High School, Kankakee, Illinois, he spent one year at the University of Illinois (Urbana), and was appointed to the United States Military Academy in July 1943. As a result of an injury received at West Point he was graduated from the Academy without a commission. Ken was to spend his remaining years fighting the debilitating effects of the radiation treatments that he received at Walter Reed Hospital during his last year at the Academy.
          
Intent upon pursuing a career in industry, he joined the Chrysler Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, working there from 1946 to 1950, and later became General Manager of the Chicago Material Handling Equipment Company in Chicago, Illinois. In 1948 he married Anne Merrihew of Belmont, Massachusetts. Not finding in industry the personal satisfaction he sought, he decided to embark upon an academic career. In the fall of 1953, he enrolled at the University of Illinois as a graduate student in mathematics, and obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1960. He began his academic career as an assistant professor of mathematics at Harpur College, State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 1963. In addition to his teaching duties, he served as Master of Newing College, SUNY at Binghamton, a residential and collegiate unit of 1,000 students, from 1970 to 1975.

His publications include Sets, Sequences and Mappings (with Dick Wick Hall), John Wiley, 1963; and Elementary Real Analysis (with Dick Wick Hall), McGraw-Hill, 1972.
 
Ken felt a strong commitment to undergraduate education. He devoted all his time, energy and talent to this commitment. He was an excellent teacher and knew he was respected and loved by his students. He also knew he was an excellent teacher!  That knowledge gave him total joy and satisfaction. An indication of his impact upon his colleagues and students can be noted in several excerpts from their letters. A colleague wrote, "Ken was one of the few thoroughly decent humans I knew, without guile and without pretense. He had a strong sense of duty and responsibility which I am sure must have helped him through some tough periods. It was always a pleasure to work with him for he came to a task without preconception and joined in controversy without rancor and always as a gentleman in the best sense of that word."  A student said, "Dr. A. cared about students and people not as numbers but as human beings to he dealt with on a personal basis. He taught me a lot-how to solve problems; how to work with people; how to compromise; how to he a better person."  Another colleague wrote, "Ken was first class all the way and the students knew it. Best of all, Ken must have known how much the students loved and respected him. This was very evident to his colleagues as we registered and advised students. 'Which calculus section is Anderson teaching?'; 'Will Anderson be teaching 161 next semester?' These questions from students really tell the story."
  
Ken is survived by his wife Anne, his mother who is now living in Venice, Florida, and a brother, Elmer Anderson, in Potsdam, New York.

                                          -Anne Anderson        

Personal Eulogy

deceased 

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