A quick review of the history of the section through 1996 can be achieved by scanning the appendix summarizing the annual meetings. Since many readers will not recognize the older names of institutions in the section, acronyms of the current names are used. A list of these abbreviations can be found in the appendix.
To facilitate the next writing of the section history, the inevitable errors and omissions should be pointed out to the author or to the section secretary.
Section members all are indebted to the small handful of mathematicians who founded the section and kept it alive those first few years. We are thankful that the section officers, and in particular the secretaries, did carefully preserve and pass on to their successors the records so vital to the writing of the history. Special thanks are due Victor Katz and Maureen Callanan of the MAA staff who kindly helped me get started and gave me a tour of the beautiful MAA headquarters building in Washington.
Everett L. Walter
Professor Emeritus
Northern Arizona University
April 1996
Membership dues originally were $3.00 and had increased only to $6.00 by 1964. There were 1046 charter members, 4 from Arizona and 3 from New Mexico. The gross expenditures in 1916 were $3,712. The Association was incorporated in Illinois on September 8, 1920. Although we "Americans" think of the Association as national it was meant from the start to be North American in extent. The object of the MAA was (and still is) "to assist in promoting the interests of mathematics in America, especially in the collegiate field." Geographically the origination of MAA was primarily in the Midwest. From the beginning, there were geographical sections. In fact, three sections of MAA had met before the 1915 organizational meeting.
Undergraduate Mathematics Clubs were sponsored in 1919. The William Lowell Putnam Competition was begun in 1938. The Chauvenet Prize Fund and the Carus Mathematical Monographs were initiated in 1925. The Slaught Memorial Papers started in 1947. The Earle Raymond Hedrick Lectures began in 1952. The Association began producing films in 1959. The L. R. Ford Award was established in 1965. In 1961, the Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics was established. The Committee on Undergraduate Programs in Mathematics (CUPM) was endorsed as "a distant arm" of MAA in 1958 as an outgrowth of the old CUP of MAA which first met in 1953. Professor Robert J. Wisner, now of NMSU, was the first Executive Director of CUPM.
For other interesting history of MAA, see:
a. Kenneth O. May, Editor, The Mathematical
Association of America: Its First Fifty years, MAA, 1972. (See
especially pp. 97-98 for a note about the Southwestern Section.)
b. Albert A. Bennett, Brief History of the
Mathematical Association of America Before World War II, MAA Monthly,
Vol. 74, Part II, 1967, pp. 1-11.
c. R. A. Rosenbaum, History of the MAA since
World War II, MAA Monthly, Vol. 74, Part II, 1967, pp. 12-22.
The chairman of the mathematics section of that 1936 meeting was F. W. Sparks from Texas Technological College at Lubbock and the secretary was W. C. Risselman from Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff. Beside these two, considerable credit must be given to C. V. Newsom, University of New Mexico, for organizing the section. A copy of the original by-laws is in Appendix A. With the approval of the Board of Governors the Southwestern Section became the twenty-first of what is now twenty-nine sections. There were only six charter members each from Arizona and New Mexico and probably more than that from West Texas. Their names could not be found, but a list of thirteen members that attended the first meeting in 1937 is given in the secretarial report of that year. There were no charter institutional members.
The first annual meeting of the Southwestern Section of the Mathematical Association of America was held at New Mexico State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now NMSU), on Friday and Saturday, April 2-3, 1937.
The attendance was thirty-four, including the following thirteen members of the Association: J. W. Branson, NMSU; R. F. Graesser, UA; E. A. Hazlewood, NMSU; H. D. Larsen, UNM; C. V. Newsom, UNM; E. J. Purcell, UA; P. K. Rees, NSMU; W. C. Risselman, NAU; F. W. Sparks, TTC; R. S. Underwood, TTC; C. A. Barnhart, UA; H. B. Leonard, UA and E. L. Harp, Roswell, NM.
On Friday evening there was a banquet for mathematicians and their guests. The principal address after dinner was given by Professor Emeritus J. B. Shaw of the University of Illinois.
With professor P. K. Rees, Chairman of the Section,
presiding, the following papers were presented on Friday:
1. "Some mathematical computations involved in a
determination of the oxygen parameters of sodium
periodate" by Professor E. A. Hazlewood, New Mexico State College.
2. "Hedging as a mathematical art" by Dr. H. D. Larsen,
University of New Mexico.
3. "Involutions" by Dr. E. J. Purcell, University of Arizona.
4. "The characteristic equation of a certain type of
continued fraction expansion" by Professor P. M. Singer, New
Mexico State Teachers College introduced by the secretary.
5. "A study of a recent theorem of W. B. Ford" by D. A.
Lawson (introduced by Professor Newsom) and Professor C. V.
Newsom, University of New Mexico.
6. "Algebras defined by abstract groups whose operators are
all of the form AxBy" by Professor J. B. Shaw, University of
Illinois, introduced by the secretary.
7. "Some corollaries of the Fourier-Budan theorem" by
Professor W. C. Risselman, Arizona State Teachers College at
Flagstaff.
8. "Relative delicacy of certain convergence tests" by
Professor R. S. Underwood, Texas Technological College.
On Saturday afternoon there was a symposium on the
teaching problems in mathematics. With R. F. Graesser presiding, the
following papers were presented:
1. "The teaching of a unit in hyperbolic functions" by
Professor Edna Graham, West Texas State Teachers College,
introduced by Professor Graesser.
2. "College mathematics and the new curriculum" by Professor
F. W. Sparks, Texas Technological College.
3. "Suggestions for research in teaching procedure" by
Professor Branson, New Mexico State College.
4. "Meeting the problem in freshman mathematics" by Professor
J. L. Olpin, Gila Junior College, Thatcher, Ariz., introduced
by Professor Graesser.
5. "What is to be done about high school mathematics" by
Professor Charles Wexler, Arizona State Teachers College at
Tempe, introduced by Professor Graesser.
Abstracts included such statements as:
"Only a small percent of students have taken more than the required high school courses. This creates a problem that will be more and more serious until a solution is found." "Students who register for freshman mathematics cannot be expected to have very much background" Professor Wexler advocated that "College mathematics departments should ruthlessly weed out from among their majors the incompetents who just get by in each course."
Alas, it seems that the problems of teaching mathematics have changed very little over the years! Found in the same Monthly is an advertisement for K. & E. slide rules and one for the Duke Mathematical Journal for $2.00 per year.
The 1938 meeting in Albuquerque was held in association with the AAAS, AAUP Society of American Foresters and American Society of Civil Engineers.
The 1939 meeting at Sul Ross State Teachers College in Alpine Texas was held in conjunction with 13 other associations! The total section expenses for the meeting were $6.98 with a negative balance in the treasury of $5.17. On April 23, 1940 the balance had increased to a positive $0.04. L. E. Mehlenbacher, NAU was an active member in 1939. After leaving the section he was active elsewhere in the MAA, and as late as 1974 he was the chairperson of the MAA Committee on Sections.
Carroll V. Newsom came to UNM in 1928. We owe much to him for the organization of the section and for his leadership in mathematics, not only in the Southwest, but also at the national level. He served on the first Board of Governors in 1940-1942 as governor of Region 12 that contained the Southwestern Section. He chaired the committee that created the Slaught Memorial papers and at one time chaired the MAA Putnam Competition Committee. From 1947 to 1952 he edited the American Mathematical Monthly. He was eventually to be the president of New York University and was well known throughout the world for his many accomplishments. In 1976 he was Chairperson of the Guggenheim Foundation when he was invited to speak to the section. His autobiography, Problems Are for Solving, relates some interesting stories about teaching mathematics in the Southwest in the thirties and forties.
There were no sectional meetings in 1943-1946. With two exceptions, both summer and winter national MAA meetings were held during those years. The war displaced many mathematicians from the Southwest, some permanently. It did, however, bring many mathematicians in government and industry into the area. Much of the post-war growth of the section can be attributed to this influx.
In 1946 there still were only 9 MAA members in Arizona and 24 in New Mexico; Butchart and Lampland in Flagstaff; Wexler in Tempe; Olpin in Thatcher; Boldyreff, Graesser, Leonard, Mewborn and Purcell in Tucson; Bauer, Hove, La Paz, Larsen and Rosenthal in Albuquerque; Roberts and Rodgers in Las Vegas; Linscheid in Portales; Harp in Roswell, Hamming and Whitman in Santa Fe; Reece in Socorro and Heinzman, Swingle and Wells in Las Cruces.
Regional governors were replaced by sectional governors in 1947. The first sectional governor was R. S. Underwood, Texas Technological College. He was quite active in the section in the early years and was still attending meetings as late as 1956.
The boundary of the section seems to have fluctuated, at least unofficially, through the years. It has always included Arizona and New Mexico. At first it certainly extended as far east as Lubbock and Alpine, Texas. In fact, the third and fifth meetings were held at these sites and our first sectional governor was from Lubbock. In January 1949 the area served by the section was set by the Board of Governors as Arizona and New Mexico. In April of that year at the NMSU meeting, the El Paso group asked to be moved into the section. This was later effected by the Board of Governors and the boundaries to this day include El Paso, Texas (zip codes 79900-79999).
In 1968, records were broken in attendance and in the number of papers presented at a section meeting. Associate memberships to the MAA were awarded to two students at UNM and one at UA, who were winners in the 28th annual Putnam Competition. The section has continued this practice to the present. That year also saw a paper presented by an undergraduate student, Steve Wilson, NAU, now on the faculty there.
In 1979 Ralph Ball, NMIMT was appointed Governor of the Southwestern Section for one year by the Board of Governors. He replaced Governor Nymann who was out of the country.
In recent years the section has met jointly with several mathematical organizations. The 1982 meeting at UA was held in conjunction with La Sociedad Matematica de Sonora. At that meeting Marco Antonio Valencia of Universidad de Sonora made a special presentation "Projecto de Maestria en Mathematical Educativa (MasterUs Program in Mathematics Education)." Again in 1985 at UA the section met jointly with American Mathematical Society and Sociedad Matematica Mexicana. The 1986 meeting at UTEP was held jointly with the New Mexico Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the El Paso Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the Sociedad de Professores de Matematica de Mexico.
The 1988 meeting at NAU was held jointly with the Arizona Mathematics Consortium and Arizona Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges (ArizMATYC). There was an inspiring panel discussion of programs for minority groups. Programs at UTEP for Mexican-Americans were discussed by Professor Jesus Provencio who has been active in such programs in both El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. Programs at NAU for Native-Americans were presented by Charles Moore. Some of the programs reported on reached Hopi Indians and blacks. Professor Rueben Hersh, UNM, moderator of the panel, was asked to write an article on minority participation for the Focus.
Women have been active in the section since the beginning. At the very first meeting Professor Edna Graham, West Texas State Teachers College presented a paper. However it was 1992 before the section saw its first woman officer, Joanne Peeples, EPCC, as Secretary/Treasurer. Since then we have had two section chairwomen, Anne Dudley, GCC and currently, Janet McShane, NAU. Invited papers, presentations and panel discussions regarding women in mathematics have been an ongoing part of section meetings. As in the total MAA organization, a large percentage of our active membership consists of women.
The section is proud of its efforts to involve two-year colleges and Junior colleges. The 1991 meeting at NMSU was such a meeting with the New Mexico Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges. The section's efforts to encourage student involvement have had some success with as many as three student papers presented at a recent meeting. The section also has recently begun the presentation of annual Distinguished Teaching Awards at the banquet of each meeting.
In browsing the records one finds the names of members who have attended meetings and served the section faithfully for many years. To mention a few of the older ones: Dave Arterburn, NMIMT; Harvey Butchart, NAU; Ed Gaughan, NMSU; H. D. Larsen, UNM; W. W. Mitchell, PC; Al Swimmer, ASU; Everett Walter, NAU. These people have provided an important continuity through the years.
1941: E. T. Bell, 1931 president of MAA,
California Institute of Technology, Diophantine analysis.
1963: L. J. Mordell, UA, Diophantine equations.
Stefan Bergman, Stanford University, On orthogonal functions
in the theory of conformal mapping.
R. H. Bing, 1963 president of MAA, Institute for Advanced
Study, Spheres in E3. Visiting Professor L. M.
Milne-Thompson, UA, Some thoughts on determinants.
1966: E. Dyer, Rice U, Quasi Topology.
I. N. Herstein, University of Chicago, Rings of quotients.
R. B. Crouch, NMSU was the keynote speaker.
1967: G. S. Rogers, NMSU, How to pick a campsite.
M. S. Klamkin, Ford Science Laboratory, Problem solving via
transforms.
G. L. Thompson, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Game theory
and the von Neuman model of an expanding economy.
1971: A. W. Tucker, 1961 president of MAA,
Princeton University, Comments on curricula reform.
1976: C. V. Newsom, Chairperson of the Guggenheim
Foundation, primary founder of the Southwestern Section and former Editor of
the Monthly.
1978: Victor Klee, 1971 president of MAA,
University of Washington, How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
1981: R. W. Anderson, 1981 president of MAA, Louisiana State
University, Washington representation of mathematics and Some
elementary ideas in infinite dimensional topology.
Ruth Rebekka Struik, University of Colorado-Boulder, Women
mathematicians some famous and some not so famous and A group
construction associated with LagrangeUs theorem.
Jean J. Pederson, University of Santa Clara, There is more to
geometric figures than meets the eye and Teaching mathematics
to adults.
1982: Rueben Hersh, UNM, True facts about imaginary objects.
Henry Alder, 1977 president of MAA, University of California -
Davis, Drama in mathematics: A demonstration with partitions.
John Brillhart, UA, A scholar's trip to China.
1985: Constance Reid, San Francisco, Hilbert as
a household word.
Ivan Niven, past vice president of MAA, University of Oregon,
Some observations on mathematics and mathematicians.
Gregory Brumfiel, Stanford, Modern real algebra .
George Bergman, University of California - Berkeley,
Representable functors among categories of algebras.
1987: Leonard Gillman, University of Texas and
president of MAA, Classroom notes.
Judy Moore, Sandia Corporation, Cryptography: Are two keys
better than one?
E. D. Gaughan, NMSU, secretary/treasurer of the section, 50
years of the Southwestern Section.
1988: Joe Crosswhite, past president of the
National Council of the Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), NAU,
Curriculum and evaluation standards for school mathematics.
Bernard Madison, Project Director of MS 2000, University of
Arkansas, Mathematical sciences in the year 2000.
Kenneth Ross, Secretary of MAA, University of Oregon, Random
walks on Z.
Saunders MacLane, 1951 president of MAA, University of
Chicago, What makes a good textbook?
The Summary of Meetings in the Appendix C shows the total number registered and the number of MAA members registered for most meetings. In studying these figures, one should be cautioned to the fact that many meetings were in association with other groups, sometimes non-mathematical groups, and that the registration may or may not include these.
The actual membership in the section, except for what portion of Texas to include, is easier to track. As stated earlier, there were 6 charter members each from Arizona and New Mexico and probably more than that from West Texas, making a total membership of about 25. In 1946 there were 9 Association members in Arizona and 24 in New Mexico. Their names are given in a previous section of this history. In 1949 when membership in Arizona was 20 and in New Mexico was 27, the total MAA membership was 3748. The New Mexico number more than doubled in the next two years to 61 in 1951! Figures that are available show the membership, now including El Paso, in the past forty years. It is interesting to compare membership of section with that of the total MAA:
The first award to a member of the Southwestern Section was presented in 1987 at the national meeting in San Antonio to Everett Walter, NAU. The second was presented in 1991 to Alvin Swimmer, ASU.
l. NAME. The name of this section shall be the Southwestern Section of the Mathematical Association of America.
2. PURPOSES. The purpose of this Section shall be to carry out in this region the purposes of the national organization, to afford a meeting place for members in this region, and to promote all the interests of mathematics in so far as is possible.
3. MEMBERSHIP. The membership of the Section shall be the membership of the national organization resident in Arizona and New Mexico; but other members of the Association shall be welcome at any meeting and individual members of the Association resident in areas immediately adjacent to Arizona and New Mexico may affiliate as individual members. Persons not members of the Association may be invited to attend the meetings.
4. OFFICERS. The officers of the Section shall be a chairman, a vice-chairman, and a secretary-treasurer. These three officers shall constitute the program committee. The secretary-treasurer has the duty of notifying members in regard to meetings of the Section and of preparing a report of each program for the American Mathematical Monthly. The chairman and vice-chairman shall be elected annually and the secretary-treasurer shall be elected to serve for a period of four years.
5. MEETINGS. Meetings may be called at any time by vote of the officers, or by resolution by the members at a previous meeting. There shall be at least one meeting every year in the spring.
Submitted for the Section by the Secretary,
(Signed) W. C. Risselman
NMSU New Mexico State University (formerly New
Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts), Las Cruces, NM
UNM University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
SRSTC Sul Ross State Teachers College, Alpine, TX
UA University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
TTC Texas Technical College, Lubbock, TX
NMHU New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM
NAU Northern Arizona University (formerly
Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff), Flagstaff, AZ
ASU Arizona State University (formerly Arizona
State College, and Arizona State Teachers College at Tempe),
Tempe, AZ
HAFB Holloman Air Force Base, NM
UTEP University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX
GCC Glendale Community College, Glendale, AZ
ENMU Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, NM
PC Phoenix College, Phoenix, AZ
NMIMT New Mexico Institute of Mining and
Technology (formerly New Mexico School of Mines), Socorro, NM
NMWU New Mexico Western University, Silver City, NM
EPCC El Paso Community College, El Paso, TX
NMSUG New Mexico State University at Grants, Grants, NM
PCC Pima Community College, Tucson, AZ