 | Walter Feit |
Mathematician Walter Feit, a Yale professor for 40 years, died at age 73 after a long illness on July 29 at the Connecticut Hospice in Branford, Connecticut.
Professor Feit was a pure mathematician whose contributions provided fundamental infrastructure used in algebra, geometry, topology, number theory and logic. His work aided the development of practical applications in areas including cryptography, chemistry and physics.
Professor Feit's 1963 paper with John G. Thompson, "Solvability of Groups of Odd Order," filled an entire issue of the Pacific Journal of Mathematics and is widely regarded as the most influential paper ever written on finite group theory. It energized the field, providing both inspiration and technical tools for the research that finally culminated in the complete classification of simple finite groups.
Finite group theory was only one of several areas invigorated by Professor Feit's insights. His paper on combinatoria strictures with Graham Higman became a fundamental building block and stimulated a large body of research in the field, and his work revitalized progress on Schur indices in that subject as well.
Walter Feit was born in Vienna, Austria in 1930. In August of 1939, his parents saved his life by placing him on the last train (KinderTransport) allowed to carry Jewish children out of Austria. He arrived in England just as the British government was evacuating all children from London. After being relocated a few times, he settled in a refugee hostel in Oxford. In 1943 he won a scholarship to an Oxford technical high school. He wrote later that his teachers were very encouraging and that it was at this time that he became "passionately interested in mathematics."
In 1946 he moved to the United States to stay with an aunt and uncle. The following September he entered the University of Chicago. Within 4 years he had obtained a master's degree in mathematics there; he later received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. In 1953, at the age of 22, he joined the Cornell University mathematics faculty.
Feit joined the Yale faculty of mathematics in 1964. He served the Department of Mathematics in several administrative roles, acting as director of undergraduate studies, director of graduate studies and chair.
His honors include the American Mathematical Society Cole Prize in Algebra, election to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, editorship of various journals and vice-presidency of the International Mathematical Union. In 1990, the "International Symposium on the Inverse Galois Problem" was held in Oxford, England, in honor of his 60th birthday.
In October 2003, on the eve of Professor Feit's retirement, colleagues and former students gathered at Yale for a three-day "Conference on Groups, Representations and Galois Theory" to honor him and his contributions. Nearly 80 researchers from around the world met to exchange ideas in the fields he had helped to create.
Professor Feit is survived by his wife, Sidnie Feit of Hamden; his son, professor of mathematics Paul Feit of Odessa, Texas; and his daughter, artist Alexandra Feit of Haines, Alaska.
A memorial service will be held at 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 10, at the New Haven Lawn Club, 193 Whitney Ave.
T H I S
In Memoriam: Mathematician Walter Feit,
advanced finite group theory
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