Walter Warwick Sawyer, or W. W. Sawyer, (1911 - 2008) was a mathematician, mathematics educator and author, who taught on several continents [1] [2] [3]
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Walter Warwick Sawyer was born in London, England on April 5, 1911. He attended Highgate School in London. He was an undergraduate at St. John's College, Cambridge, obtaining a BA in 1933. He was an assistant lecturer in mathematics at from 1933 - 1937 at University College, Dundee and from 1937 - 1944 at Manchester University. From 1945 - 1947 he was the head of mathematics at Leicester College of Technology.
In 1948 W. W. Sawyer became the first head of the mathematics department of what is now the University of Ghana. From 1951 - 1956 he was at Canterbury College (now the University of Canterbury in New Zealand). He left Canterbury College to become an associate professor at the University of Illinois, where he worked from winter 1957 through June 1958. While there, he criticized the New Math movement, which included the people who had hired him. From 1958 to 1965 he was a professor of mathematics at Wesleyan University. In the fall of 1965 he became a professor at the University of Toronto, appointed to both the College of Education and the Department of Mathematics. He retired in 1976.
W. W. Sawyer was the author of some 11 books. He is probably best known for his semi-popular works Mathematicians Delight and Prelude to Mathematics. Both of these have been translated into many languages.[2] Mathematician's Delight was still in print 65 years after it was written.[1] Some mathematicians have credited these books with helping to inspire their choice of a career.[4] [5]
W.W. Sawyer died on February 15, 2008, at the age of 96. He was survived by a daughter.