Wolfgang Haken

1928 - 2022

CHAMPAIGN - Wolfgang Haken, 94, of Champaign passed away Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022, at home.

Wolfgang was born June 21, 1928, in Berlin, Germany, to Werner Haken and Tilly (Wieneke) Haken. During World War II, he was evacuated to Poland for a time, along with many other children from Berlin. At the age of 15, he was drafted to serve in a German anti-aircraft battery. After the war ended, Wolfgang first worked as a farmhand. He passed a high school GED exam and started his undergraduate studies at the University of Kiel in 1946. Wolfgang obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Kiel in 1953, with Professor Karl-Heinrich Weise as his thesis adviser.

Wolfgang met his future wife, Anna-Irmgard von Bredow, at the University of Kiel in 1950, where she was also studying mathematics. The couple were married Nov. 23, 1953, in Flensburg, Germany.

After getting his Ph.D., Wolfgang was hired by Siemens in Munich, Germany, as an electrical engineer, where he worked on designing microwave devices until 1962. The first three of his and Irmgard's children were born during this time. In 1956, Haken sustained a near-fatal accident while mountain climbing in the German Alps. He fell over 30 feet and remained in a coma for several days.

Wolfgang published a paper in Acta Mathematica in 1961 in which he used radically unconventional methods for solving the Unknotting Problem. Professor Bill Boone of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was impressed by this work and invited him to spend the 1962-63 academic year at the UI as a visiting professor. Wolfgang then spent two years as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. In 1965, he joined the faculty at the at the UI as a tenured professor. He spent several decades working on the Poincaré Conjecture, but was unable to prove it. Three more children of Wolfgang and Irmgard were born in the U.S.

In 1970, Professor Haken began to work on the Four-Color Problem; six years later, he and Professor Ken Appel announced their solution in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. Their proof marked the first time that a major mathematical result was achieved with the help of a computer, generating much discussion and controversy in the mathematical community. The UI Department of Mathematics put the phrase "Four Colors Suffice" on its official postmark, which remained in use until the mid-1990s. Professor Haken was a member of the UI Center for Advanced Study from 1990 until his retirement in 1998. He spent the next 24 years working on a new cosmology theory as an alternative to the Big Bang Theory.

Wolfgang, as well as his wife and many members of his family, were faithful participants in the "Saturday Hike," an Urbana-Champaign tradition dating to 1909 and having a long association with the mathematics department. The hike was for many years led by the late Professor Joseph Doob, who influenced Wolfgang's interest in cosmology.

Besides all his professional achievements, Wolfgang was an accomplished furniture maker and musical-instrument builder. He also enjoyed camping and bicycling.

Wolfgang was preceded in death by his parents; two brothers (in 1927); his wife, Irmgard (in 2017); and a granddaughter, Sofia Haken.

He is survived by three sons, Armin (Shantha Ramagopal) of San Francisco, Lippold (Beth) of Champaign and Rudolf of Urbana; three daughters, Dorothea (Steven) Blostein of Harrowsmith, Ontario, Agnes (Christian) Debrunner of Conifer, Colo., and Armgard of Urbana; and 12 grandchildren.

In honor of Wolfgang's love for the great outdoors, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Champaign County Forest Preserve District.

Tributes, photos and stories may be shared at forevermissed.com/wolfgang-haken. Condolences may be offered at morganmemorialhome.com.