Remembering Martin Gardner
The links at the end below lead to pages with a great deal of additional material.
(All photos on this and related webpages are copyrighted and may not be used without permission.)
Colm is giving two public lectures in Atlanta on "The Mathematics, Magic & Mystery of Martin Gardner" on Thursday, 21 October, in connection with Atlanta's Celebration of Mind event.
The first is at 11am at Georgia Tech (Klaus 1456). Second is the Sixth Annual Dansby Lecture at 3pm at Morehouse College (Dansby 330).
Click on Martin Gardner for information and reminiscences of the man being honoured.
An intellectual giant, brilliant expository writer and one of the great American men of letters of the 20th century, Martin Gardner died on Saturday, 22 May 2010, aged 95. The photograph shows him taking a well-earned break in March 2006, having written every book on the six shelves beside him. He went on to write many more over the next four years.
"We all know (intellectually) that no one is immortal, but I think that Martin will come the closest to being so among all the people that I know." (Ron Graham, personal communication)
An animated Martin in March 2008. (Thanks to Matthew Temba for assembling this gif)
"So it is a very sad day to think that such a person is gone, and that so many of us owe him so much, and that so few people -- even extremely intelligent, well-informed people -- realize who he was or have even ever heard of him. Very strange. But I guess that when you are a total non-self-trumpeter like Martin, that's what you want and that's what you get. And so perhaps it's all for the best that he remains sort of hidden behind the scenes, known only to a special set of people." (Douglas Hofstadter, Scientific American website)
Martin Gardner's family has requested that anyone wishing to make a contribution in his honor may do so through either of these foundations:
The James Randi Educational Foundation, 201 S.E. 12th St., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316-1815, USA.
The Mishawaka Foundation, 1 Brickyard Drive, Bloomington, IL 61701, USA.
Also In His Own Words: More Mathemagical Games (and Tricks) With Cards From
Martin Gardner
In His Own Words: Mathematical Card Tricks From Martin Gardner (1914-2010)
Remembering the Professional Martin Gardner
Remembering the Personal Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner on the Web (Then and Now)
Martin Gardner Tribute in MAA FOCUS
(September 2010, with links to 7 of his classic Scientific American
columns)
author: Colm Mulcahy, Spelman College
email: colm@spelman.edu
url: http://www.spelman.edu/~colm
phone: (404) 270-5837
(This is http://www.spelman.edu/~colm/mg.html)
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