[cmath] John Coleman 1918-2010

[Peter Taylor]

John Coleman died three weeks ago.  He was a CMS 
president, a CMESG founder, and altogether a 
remarkable man.  I append this brief tribute.
peter

Albert John Coleman
1918 – 2010

His father was a worker on the Canadian Pacific 
Railway and with the help of a scholarship John 
gained admission in 1935 to the University of 
Toronto.  In 1938, the team of John Coleman, 
Nathan Mendelsohn and Irving Kaplansky gave 
Toronto the top score in the inaugural Putnam 
exam.  Following that he obtained an MSc at 
Princeton (1940) and a PhD at Toronto in 
Relativistic Quantum Mechanics under the 
supervision of J.L Synge and then Leopold 
Infeld.  He spent 10 years as Assistant and 
Associate Professor at Toronto, and in 1960 began 
his 20-year tenure as Head of the Department of 
Mathematics and Statistics at Queen’s University.

Mathematics.
 From 1973 to 1975 he was the President of the 
Canadian Mathematical Society, and in 1995 he won 
its Distinguished Service Award.  From 1973-77 he 
was a member of the Science Council of Canada and 
in 1975 he was the senior author of the Science 
Council Report (#37) on the Mathematical Sciences 
in Canada.  Between 1974 and 1982, John was first 
Chairman and then Treasurer of the Commission on 
Exchange and Development of the International Mathematical Union (IMU).

When asked whether he was a mathematician or a 
physicist, John would reply that he was a quantum 
chemist.  He published over 50 papers and gave 
lectures in Dublin, Princeton, Moscow, Leningrad, 
Jilin (China) Hong Kong, Shanghai, to name a few 
cities.  He was made an Honorary Professor at the 
University of Shandong in Jinan, China.  In the 
1970’s and 80’s he was a leading player in the 
scientific exchange program between Canada and the USSR.

Mathematics Education
In the early 60’s, John was senior editor of the 
Gage series of school mathematics textbooks which 
effectively brought the “New Maths” to 
Canada.  One of the recommendations of his 
Science Council Report led to the establishment 
in 1977 (made “official” at the next meeting in 
1978) of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study 
Group, the founding members being John, David 
Wheeler and William Higginson.  CMESG is the envy 
of many from other countries who attend its 
annual meetings as it brings together university 
mathematicians and math educators, graduate 
students and teachers for 3-4 days of vigorous workshops and talks.

As a teacher, much revered by his students, he 
rambled over rich and beautiful and often chaotic 
worlds and then focused sharply on his point, 
leaving us to reconstruct the technical 
development.  In this regard he was a true 
disciple of his mentor Alfred North Whitehead, 
whose Aims of Education was one of his 
bibles.  [This extraordinary collection of 
essays, written in the 1920’s, is more relevant today than it has ever been.]

Theology (the other bible).
In his undergraduate days, John was secretary of 
the Student Christian Movement at Toronto.  From 
1945-49 he was University Secretary of the World 
Student Christian Federation in Geneva, visiting 
100 universities in 20 countries and writing a 
book on The Task of the Christian in the 
University.  At that time he met his wife, Marie 
Jeanne de Haller, a Swiss Theologian, and a 
remarkably kind, gentle and wise woman, who died 
in 2006.  In 1978 he was the only Canadian layman 
to participate in the Lambeth conference in 
Canterbury.  [The big issue that year was the 
admission of women to the clergy.]

Starting in 1960, and for many years thereafter 
he ran a seminar at Queen’s for 12 students in 
their second year.  The summer before, we had the 
task of reading a number of books: Dostoyevsky, 
Crime and Punishment, J B Phillips Letters to 
young churches, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and 
Papers from Prison, and others, and during the 
year we met every second week at his home to take 
turns presenting papers on the books.  It was an 
extraordinary and formative experience for all 
who were fortunate enough to take part.

The Man
John was a remarkable man.  His idiosyncratic 
style, a child-like directness, distanced him 
from some but won the passionate allegiance of so 
many others.  As a Head, he had a firm and open 
leadership style.  As a colleague and a friend, 
he was generous with his time, a superb listener, 
and always interested in the tales that his 
companion had to tell.  He was a devout man, with 
a strong faith in a just God.  He even had a fine 
run as a politician, almost taking the Kingston 
federal seat from Flora MacDonald.  In these 
uncertain, morally ambiguous times, I am struck 
by how much the world now needs people of his 
wisdom, clarity, and integrity.  In the early 
morning of September 30th 2010, John died quietly 
in hospital in Kingston at the age of 92.  The 
week before he had been keen to have a young 
undergraduate I had told him about come to his 
bedside so he could talk to him about Whitehead’s theory of relativity.

Peter Taylor
Queen’s University
October 21, 2010


Peter Taylor
Professor
Dept Math&Stats
Queen's University
Kingston ON K7L 3N6
613 533-2434
http://www.mast.queensu.ca/~peter/ 
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