[cmath] In Memory of Donald Solitar, 1932-2008

[Susan Rainey]

Donald Moiseyevitch Solitar

Professor Donald Solitar, eminent mathematician, occasional poet, and one 
of York University's originals, passed away unexpectedly on Friday, April 
25, 2008, at age 75.

He came to York in 1968 from the Polytechnic University of New York to 
head the Mathematics department. He was also Acting Chair of the Computer 
Science department during 1968-73. Through his efforts and those of his 
close friend and collaborator, Abe Karrass, York's mathematics department 
soon became a world centre in "combinatorial group theory" (the study of 
groups---which in essence measure the symmetries of objects both real and 
imaginary---in terms of generating symmetries and relations between them). 
 

Professor Solitar was a ?lateral thinker?, very often coming up with an 
unexpected viewpoint. He was well known in the international mathematical 
community, in particular for the now classic book Combinatorial Group 
Theory, written jointly with his adviser Wilhelm Magnus and with Abe 
Karrass. The book was subsequently translated into Russian. In 1982 he was 
elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. 
Donald was an inspiring teacher, and in 1985 received an OCUFA Teaching 
Award. He had an ebullient and in other ways extraordinary personality, 
and was extremely generous to all he came in contact with. 

He is survived by his wife Francien, his sister Miriam, and a large 
extended family, of which he was the patriarch. 

Bob Burns, Israel Kleiner, Alfred Pietrowski
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