George Csordas

Just now, I learned of the George's death. My deepest sympathies to his widow and family. Thoroughout my career, I was aware of George's research, and we communicated a bit, but I only had the pleasure of meeting him rather late in life and indeed it was a real pleasure to spend a week with him at the American Institute of Mahtematics at his kind invitation.

(This is a written version of my remarks in the service. - JBN) I have been asked to address George's contributions to mathematics and the University of Hawai`i. George Csordas was born in 1941 in Budapest. In 1956, he and his older brother Paul escaped from Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution, and emigrated to Canada. He completed high school at St. Michael's College School and got his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto. Paul remains in Toronto to this day, but...

Dr. Csordas was one of the University of Hawaii professors I was fortunate to learn from and become acquainted with as we would often be walking to Varsity Theatre at the same time to his entry-level Math 100 class many years ago, and chat on the way down. I sat right in front to avoid distractions and learn as much as I could. His knowledge and passion for teaching mathematical concepts, not just computation, were inspiring. Some of it was beyond my ability to completely understand, but...

I met professor George Csordas during my academic visits of the mathematics department of the University of Hawai`i at Manoa where he has been a professor of mathematics until his retirement. I was always impressed by his encyclopedic knowledge of mathematics, his culture and his devotion to mathematics. He had a large spectrum of interests. He was a very humble person and was alway willing to help other mathematicians. The mathematical community will miss him. I offer my sincere...