Menu
Search by Name
Search by Name
Peter ROSENTHAL Obituary
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
Memories and Condolences
for Peter ROSENTHAL
14 Entries
Aristides Katavolos
December 1, 2024
A great mathematician, and most importantly a great human being!
Fighting racism and injustice was "in his bones", he said.
I wish we had more like him in Academia.
I am currently teaching a course using one of his books, I'll have to tell the class he is no longer with us. He will be missed!
William E Longstaff
November 29, 2024
I first met Peter in November of 1969 when I went to his office in the Sidney Smith Building to ask him if he would consider being my PhD supervisor. Over lunch he agreed. Little did I realise it at the time, but that was a turning point in my life. I was most fortunate. I was his second PhD student. Over more than 50 years Peter was a teacher, a research associate, a dear friend and more. Words are not enough. I am left with wonderful memories of our times together.
He visited me in Australia a few times. Wee had such fun. We did good research and I tried to assimilate him into the Australian way of life. We went gold prospecting together in the West Australian desert. He wore a hat with corks around it for the flies as he brandished the metal detector, searching, searching. We went to the races and lost our money as most people do. He became a member of the Rottnest Island Mathematical Society whose patron was Paul Halmos (his PhD supervisor).
Peter was an amazing human being. His most endearing trait was the way he treated everyone he met equally, with real concern about their problems. He was a brilliant mathematician and teacher. He inspired many young people by his example, just being himself. Like no other I will miss him. R.I.P.
Paul Bartha
August 21, 2024
I was extremely sad to learn of Peter's passing, and I want to send my sympathy to the whole family. Even though I have not been in touch with Peter for some time, I was (and remain!) extremely fond of him. I was a student in the U of T Math Specialist program in the early 1980s. Everyone in that program will have vivid memories of Peter, and for me it was the consistently brilliant and friendly lectures he gave, as my first math professor at U of T in Math 150 and again in Math 350, and one last time in my fourth year when I did some type of advanced study with him on operator theory. (I vividly remember standing at the blackboard in his office to prove that the spectrum of a Toeplitz operator is simply connected - but the details of the proof escape me now.) Peter had a joyous attitude to life - it was so obvious and so wonderful to see. He talked to me occasionally about his legal work, and even though he was dealing with dark and serious issues, he still seemed to bring the same bright energy to this area. We´ll all miss him so much!
Paul Bartha, Professor of Philosophy, U.B.C.
Edwin Perkins
August 14, 2024
Peter Rosenthal is one of a handful of people responsible for my mathematical career. In 1971 I was enrolled in Math 150 and Math 140 at University of Toronto. These were year long courses in single-variable calculus and algebra, respectively, for students who thought they wanted to learn mathematical rigour on day one, straight out of high school. My first couple of lectures in Math 150 consisted of learning the axioms of the reals. The panic in the room was very real indeed as the 100 students in my section plummeted to 25 in the first week. The lecturer seemed to revel in the complete lack of understanding in the blank faces of my classmates, some of whom I recognized from high school math contests. In week two we were taught limits, starting of course with epsilon-delta. The course designers at UofT failed to recognize the amount of rewiring required for the teenage brain to comprehend nested quantifiers. By week two I couldn´t do my first university homework and tried to transfer out of mathematics and into astronomy but the office had closed already. When the student numbers were in the teens in I heard a rumour that some had started attending the other section which was taught at the same time by a cool guy named Rosenthal. In desperation I tried him out. I have this memory of him wearing a black leather jacket and white teeshirt in class-perhaps a later embellishment but it would fit. He came in smiled at us all picked up the chalk and started a very relaxed lecture on limits. Not a note in sight for the entire year. Some students were actually asking the odd question which was invariably followed by a thoughtful explanation. He cracked the odd joke but the emphasis was always on understanding. It wasn´t enough to stymie all the panic which had built up in those early days, but I felt I may have a chance at least and never did go back to try to transfer out of math again. I greatly enjoyed Peter´s lectures and Spivak´s calculus book, and have a clear memory of walking down St. George Street repeating the definition of limit to myself, when it suddenly became trivial. After a 40 year career in mathematical probability the hardest thing I ever did in mathematics was surviving the first semester of Math 150 and 140. It would have been impossible without Peter Rosenthal´s lectures, and later I did have an opportunity to thank him. As a superb lecturer, Peter has surely touched and shaped many lives in a similar way.
Ed Perkins, Prof. Emeritus, U. B. C.
Jeffrey Rosenthal
July 17, 2024
NOTE: A celebration of life for Peter Rosenthal will be held on Saturday Aug 24, 2024, at 2:00 pm, at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto. All welcome! For details please see:
http://probability.ca/petercelebration/
Miriam Smith
June 2, 2024
Carol,
I was told of your husband's passing this morning. I know that you are a fierce woman, and will let yourself grieve. May his memory be a blessing.
Howard Knopf
May 29, 2024
A truly remarkable renaissance man. May his memory be a blessing.
Ricki Mintz
May 29, 2024
Carol, I just read that your husband died on May 27. I know you will be strong and allow yourself to grieve. May your memories of him get you through these sad times. Ricki Mintz
Showing 1 - 14 of 14 results