MOSCICKI
MOSER
MOSLEY
MOSS
MOSSING
MOSCICKI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-09-27 published
MOSCICKI,
Joan (née
TAILOR/TAYLOR)
Died peacefully at home on April 11, 2003 in Southport, England
in her 81st year. Predeceased by her cherished husband Jan (1985)
and her sister Muriel
LEVERTON (1997.) Born in England, Joan
emigrated to Canada after the Second World War. She settled in
Toronto where she met and married Jan
MOSCICKI, who came to Canada
from Poland after World War 2. Joan enjoyed a long career with
The Prudential Insurance Company of America. Following her retirement
in 1986, she returned to England to live near her family. She
is survived by her cousins, Pam
TAILOR/TAYLOR and Rob
TAILOR/TAYLOR.
Joan will
be sadly missed by her family, as well as Friends in both Canada
and England. A funeral service was held on April 23, 2003 at
Southport Crematorium. Interment at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in
Toronto.
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MOSER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-12 published
'He kept a little flame of geometry alive'
Superstar University of Toronto mathematician considered himself
an artist, but his seminal work inevitably found practical applications
By Siobhan
ROBERTS
Saturday,
April 12, 2003 - Page F11
Widely considered the greatest classical geometer of his time
and the man who saved his discipline from near extinction, Harold
Scott MacDonald
COXETER, who died on March 31 at 96, said of
himself, with characteristic modesty, "I am like any other artist.
It just so happens that what fills my mind is shapes and numbers."
Prof. COXETER's work focused on hyperdimensional shapes, specifically
the symmetry of regular figures and polytopes. Polytopes are
geometric shapes of any number of dimensions that cannot be constructed
in the real world and can be visualized only when the eye of
the beholder possesses the necessary insight; they are most often
described mathematically and sometimes can be represented with
hypnotically intricate fine-line drawings.
"I like things that can be seen," Prof.
COXETER once remarked.
"You have to imagine a different world where these queer things
have some kind of shape."
Known as Donald (shortened from MacDonald,) Prof.
COXETER had
such a passion for his work and unrivalled elegance in constructing
and writing proofs that he motivated countless mathematicians
to pick up the antiquated discipline of geometry long after it
had been deemed passé.
John Horton
CONWAY, the Von Neumann professor of mathematics
at Princeton University, never studied under Prof.
COXETER, but
he considers himself an honorary student because of the
COXETERian
nature of his work.
"With math, what you're doing is trying to prove something and
that can get very complicated and ugly.
COXETER always manages
to do it clearly and concisely," Prof.
CONWAY said. "He kept
a little flame of geometry alive by doing such beautiful works
himself.
"I'm reminded of a quotation from Walter Pater's book The Renaissance.
He was describing art and poetry, but he talks of a small, gem-like
flame: 'To burn always with this hard, gem-like flame, to maintain
this ecstasy, is success in life.' "
Prof. COXETER's oeuvre included more than 250 papers and 12 books.
His Introduction to Geometry, published in 1961, is now considered
a classic -- it is still in print and this year is back on the
curriculum at McGill University. His Regular Polytopes is considered
by some as the modern-day addendum to Euclid's Elements. In 1957,
he published Generators and Relations for Discrete Groups, written
jointly with his PhD student and lifelong friend Willy
MOSER.
It is currently in its seventh edition.
Prof. COXETER's self-image as an artist was validated by his
Friendship with and influence on Dutch artist M. C.
ESCHER, who,
when working on his Circle Limit 3 drawings, used to say, "I'm
Coxetering today."
They met at the International Mathematical Congress in Amsterdam
in 1954 and then corresponded about their mutual interest in
repeating patterns and representations of infinity. In a letter
to his son, Mr.
ESCHER noted that a diagram sent to him by Prof.
COXETER that inspired his Circle Limit 3 prints "gave me quite
a shock."
He added that "
COXETER's hocus-pocus text is no use to me at
all.... I understand nothing, absolutely nothing of it."
While Mr. ESCHER claimed total ignorance of math, Prof.
COXETER
wrote numerous papers on the Dutchman's "intuitive geometry."
Though Prof.
COXETER did geometry for its own sake, his work
inevitably found practical application. Buckminster
FULLER encountered
his work in the construction of his geodesic domes. He later
dedicated a book to Prof.
COXETER: "By virtue of his extraordinary
life's work in mathematics, Prof.
COXETER is the geometer of
our bestirring twentieth century. [He is] the spontaneously acclaimed
terrestrial curator of the historical inventory of the science
of pattern analysis."
Prof. COXETER's work with icosohedral symmetries served as a
template of sorts in the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the
Carbon 60 molecule. It has also proved relevant to other specialized
areas of science such as telecommunications, data mining, topology
and quasi-crystals.
In 1968, Prof.
COXETER added to his list of converts an anonymous
society of French mathematicians, the Bourbakis, who actively
and internationally sought to eradicate classical geometry from
the curriculum of math education.
"Death to Triangles, Down with Euclid!" was the Bourbaki war
cry. Prof.
COXETER's rebuttal: "Everyone is entitled to their
opinion. But the Bourbakis were sadly mistaken."
One member of the society, Pierre
CARTIER, met Prof.
COXETER
in Montreal and became enamoured of his work. Soon, he had persuaded
his fellow Bourbakis to include Prof.
COXETER's approach in their
annual publication. "An entire volume of Bourbaki was thoroughly
inspired by the work of
COXETER," said Prof.
CARTIER, a professor
at Denis Diderot University in Paris.
In the 1968 volume, Prof.
COXETER's name was writ large into
the lexicon of mathematics with the inauguration of the terms
"COXETER number," "
COXETER group" and
"COXETER graph."
These concepts describe symmetrical properties of shapes in multiple
dimensions and helped to bridge the old-fashioned classical geometry
with the more au courant and applied algebraic side of the discipline.
These concepts continue to pervade geometrical discourse, several
decades after being discovered by Prof.
COXETER.
Prof. COXETER became a serious mathematician at the relatively
late age of 14, though family folklore has it that, as a toddler,
he liked to stare at the columns of numbers in the financial
pages of his father's newspaper.
He was born into a Quaker family in Kensington, just west of
London, on February 9, 1907. His mother, Lucy
GEE, was a landscape
artist and portrait painter, and his father, Harold, was a manufacturer
of surgical instruments, though his great love was sculpting.
They had originally named their son MacDonald Scott
COXETER,
but a godparent suggested that the boy's father's name should
be added at the front. Another relative then pointed out that
H.M.S. COXETER made him sound like a ship of the royal fleet
so the names were switched around.
When Prof.
COXETER was 12, he created his own language -- "Amellaibian"
a cross between Latin and French, and filled a 126-page notebook
with information on the imaginary world where it was spoken.
But more than anything he fancied himself a composer, writing
several piano concertos, a string quartet and a fugue. His mother
took her son and his musical compositions to Gustav
HOLST.
His
advice: "Educate him first."
He was then sent to boarding school, where he met John Flinders
PETRIE, son of Egyptologist Sir Flinders
PETRIE.
The two were
passing time at the infirmary contemplating why there were only
five Platonic solids -- the cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron
and icosahedron. They then began visualizing what these shapes
might look like in the fourth dimension. At the age of 15, Prof.
COXETER won a school prize for an English essay on how to project
these geometric shapes into higher dimensions -- he called it
"Dimensional Analogy."
Prof. COXETER's father took his son along with his essay to meet
friend and fellow pacifist Bertrand
RUSSELL.
Mr.
RUSSELL recommended
Prof. COXETER to mathematician E.H.
NEVILLE, a scout, of sorts,
for mathematics prodigies. He was impressed by Prof.
COXETER's
work but appalled by some inexcusable gaps in his mathematical
knowledge. Prof.
NEVILLE arranged for private tutelage in pursuit
of a scholarship at Cambridge. During this period, Prof.
COXETER
was forbidden from thinking in the fourth dimension, except on
Sundays.
He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1926 and was among
five students handpicked by Ludwig
WITTGENSTEIN for his philosophy
of mathematics class. During his first year at Cambridge, at
the age of 19, he discovered a new regular polyhedron that had
six hexagonal faces at each vertex.
After graduating with first-class honours in 1929, he received
his doctorate under H. F.
BAKER in 1931, winning the coveted
Smith's Prize for his thesis.
Prof. COXETER did fellowship stints back and forth between Princeton
and Cambridge for the next few years, focusing on the mathematics
of kaleidoscopes -- he had mirrors specially cut and hinged together
and carried them in velvet pouches sewn by his mother. By 1933,
he had enumerated the n-dimensional kaleidoscopes -- that is,
kaleidoscopes operating up to any number of dimensions.
The concepts that became known as
COXETER groups are the complex
algebraic equations he developed to express how many images may
be seen of any object in a kaleidoscope (he once used a paper
triangle with the word "nonsense" printed on it to track reflections).
In 1936, Prof.
COXETER was offered an assistant professorship
at the University of Toronto. He made the move shortly after
the sudden death of his father and following his marriage to
Rien BROUWER.
She was from the Netherlnds and he met her while
she was on holiday in London.
As a professor, Prof.
COXETER was known to flout set curriculum.
Ed BARBEAU, now a professor at the U of T, recalled that at the
start of his classes, Prof.
COXETER would spread out a manuscript
on the desks at the front of the room. During his lecture, he
would often pause for minutes at a time to make notes when a
student offered something that might be relevant to his work
in progress. When the work was later published, students were
pleasantly surprised to find that their suggestions had been
duly credited.
Prof. COXETER was also known to show up to class carrying a pineapple,
or a giant sunflower from his garden, demonstrating the existence
of geometric principles in nature. And he was notorious for leaping
over details, expecting students to fill in the rest.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's resident intellectual, Lister
SINCLAIR, was one of
Prof. COXETER's earliest students. He once recounted that Prof.
COXETER would "write an expression on the board and you could
see it talking to him. It was like Michelangelo walking around
a block of marble and seeing what's in there."
Asia Ivic WEISS, a professor at York University, Prof.
COXETER's
last PhD student and the only woman so honoured, describes an
incident that perfectly exemplifies Prof.
COXETER's math myopia.
Going into labour with her first child, she called him to cancel
their weekly meeting. Prof.
COXETER, who never acknowledged her
pregnancy, said not to worry, he would send over a stack of research
to keep her busy when she got home from the hospital.
Despite several offers from other universities, Prof.
COXETER
stayed at University of Toronto throughout his career.
Like his father, he was a pacifist. In 1997, he was among those
who marched a petition to the university president's office to
protest against an honorary degree being conferred on George
BUSH Sr. Prof.
COXETER recalled with disdain Robert
PRITCHARD's
telling him, "Donald, I have more important things to worry about."
After his official retirement in 1977, Prof.
COXETER continued
as a professor emeritus, making weekly visits to his office.
These subsided only in the past several months. On the weekend
before his death, he finished revisions on his final paper, which
he had delivered the previous summer in Budapest.
In his last five years, he survived a heart attack, a broken
hip (he sprung himself from the hospital early to drive to a
geometry conference in Wisconsin) and, most recently, prostate
cancer.
Considering his 96 years of vegetarianism and a strict exercise
regime, he felt betrayed by his body. "I feel like the man of
Thermopylae who doesn't do anything properly," he commented
recently after an awkward evening out, quoting nonsense poet
Edward LEAR.
Prof. COXETER died in his home, with three long last breaths,
just before bed on the last day of March.
His brain is now undergoing study at McMaster University, along
with that of Albert
EINSTEIN.
Neuroscientist
Sandra
WITELSON
is tryng to determine whether his brain's extraordinary capacities
are associated with its structure.
Prof. COXETER met with her at the beginning of March and learned
that the atypical elements of Einstein's brain, compared with
an average brain, were symmetrical on both right and left sides.
Prof. WITELSON said she wondered whether there might be similar
findings with Prof.
COXETER's brain. "Isn't that nice," he said.
"I suppose that would indicate all my interest in symmetry was
well founded."
Prof. COXETER leaves his daughter Susan and son Edgar. His wife
died in 1999.
Siobhan ROBERTS is a Toronto writer whose biography of Donald
COXETER will be published by Penguin in 2005.
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MOSLEY o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-12-10 published
John "Jack"
BILLARD
In loving memory of John "Jack"
BILLARD who passed away Monday,
December 1, 2003 at the Mindemoya Hospital at the age of 77 years.
Beloved husband of Audrey
(BANFIELD)
BILLARD of Mindemoya. Loving
father of Sandra
MOSLEY of Atikokan, Madge
BUDGELL (husband Wilf
predeceased) and Sharon
HAGEN (husband George) both of Lively and
Terry (wife Anne) of Red Lake. Cherished grandfather of Melissa,
Jergen, Erica, Steven (fiancie Christina), Darren (fiancie Anne),
Andrew, Tyler and Karleen. Dear son of Archibald and Elizabeth
BILLARD both predeceased. Dear brother of Gwen, Don (wife
Mona+,)
Lora (husband Jim), predeceased by Ada, Edwin, and Ross. Dear brother-in-law of
Ruth, Marguerite, Rod, Ella and Barbara. Sadly missed by nieces , nephews, great
nieces and nephews, cousins and especially by his canine pal Riley.
Funeral Service was held at the Lougheed Funeral Home Regent St Sudbury
Friday, December 5, 2003. Cremation at the Parklawn Crematorium.
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MOSLEY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-12 published
RYDER,
Earl
Henry
William (former Vice President, New Development,
St. Hilda's Towers Inc.)
Died peacefully on Tuesday, May 27th, 2003, in his 72nd year.
Beloved husband of Jule
RYDER (née
FILKIN.)
Special best friend
and Grandfather (Baa) to Kaitlyn.
son of the late Mary Ann Tabitha
MOSLEY (Aberdeen, Scotland) and Donald Earl
RYDER (Hillsburgh,
Ontario.)
Nephew of Phyllis
DRURY.
Brother of Betty and Phyllis
(Thomas). Stepfather to Michael (Kelly) and Peter. Godfather
to Donald. Uncle to Mary Ann, Delphine, Tom, David, Andrew, and
Paul; and Elizabeth, Kathryn, Roberta and Donald. A much loved
Uncle to many greatnieces and greatnephews. A special thank you
to the nurses and doctors at North York General Hospital for
their excellent care. A Memorial Service celebrating Earl's love
of life and music will be held in the Chapel of R.S. Kane Funeral
Home, 6150 Yonge Street, North York (416-221-1159) on Monday,
June 16, 2003 at 1: 00 p.m. Donations may be made in Earl's memory
to the North York General Hospital (Intensive Care Unit or Pastoral
Care), Saint John's Church, York Mills (Building for the Future
Fund) or to a charity of your choice.
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MOSS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-03-05 published
DUTTON,
Gary
Richard (1933-2003)
After a lengthy illness, Gary passed away March 3, 2003, in his
70th year. Beloved husband of Margaret Mary (née
MOSS,) dearest
father of Mark S. (Christine) and Myles (Helen.) Gary
DUTTON,
a renowned member of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada
as well as the Heraldry Society of Canada, was a loving grandfather
of Janice, Warren, Lucas and Charlotte. Gary was predeceased
by his mother Edith
WILSON and will be sadly missed by his step
father Robert
WILSON.
The family has arranged for a private memorial
service to be held at a later date. Floral tributes are gratefully
declined, however, donations would be appreciated to the Bridgepoint
Health Centre (formerly Riverdale Hospital), whose caring staff
have provided outstanding long term care and support.
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MOSS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-03-21 published
MOSS,
Earle
Roderick
Internationally acclaimed pianist and teacher, bon vivant, gourmet
cook, world traveler died at Grey Bruce Health Services, Owen
Sound on Wednesday, March 19, 2003 after a long, painful but
dignified struggle with age-related disabilities. He was 82 years
of age. Dearly beloved brother of Eric (Bonnie) of Perth, Ontario
and Sylvia (Frances) of Owen Sound, Ontario. Predeceased by brother
Cyril
Lloyd, mother Marian Agnes
KENNARD, father Cyril Albert
and step-mother Frances Astley
McDOUGAL.
Sadly missed by niece
Catherine MOSS and great-niece Jesse
MOSS-
BALAN, nieces Joy (Raul)
POBRE-MOSS, Ruayan and Gay
POBRE-
MOSS, nephew David
MOSS-
CORNETT
and by many Friends and students. Baptized in the Anglican Church
of St. Barnabas (Chester) in Toronto, the city of his birth,
Earle in later years converted to Roman Catholicism, taking the
name Thomas, after Saint Thomas, the doubting Disciple of Christ.
Funeral Massachusetts will be celebrated at Saint Mary's Catholic
Church in Owen Sound on Saturday, March 22, 2003 at 11 o'clock
with celebrant Father Paul
WALSH. At a date to be announced later,
a Memorial Mass will be held at Regis College, 15 Saint Mary Street,
Toronto. Donations in memory of Earle to Regis College, Toronto,
Saint Mary's Church, Owen Sound or Saint Thomas Anglican Church,
Owen Sound or the charity of your choice would be appreciated
and may be made through the Tannahill Funeral Home (519-376-3710)
1178 4th Ave. West, Owen Sound N4K 4W5. Messages of condolence
are welcome at www.tannahill.com
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MOSSING o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-09-17 published
Gallant fighter pilot was war hero
Upper Canada College alumnus received the coveted Distinguished
Flying Cross in 1943 for his 'very keen fighting spirit'
By Tom HAWTHORN
Special to The Globe and Mail Wednesday, September
17, 2003 - Page R7
Rowan
T.
(Bob)
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON was a Second World War fighter pilot
who credited his flying mate, Larry
DOHERTY, with saving his
life at the cost of his own.
Mr. DOHERTY alerted Mr.
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON by radio of an impending attack
by three German fighters, shortly before he was shot down and
killed in June, 1943.
Mr. HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON escaped a similar fate only by outlasting the
enemy in a desperate, 20-minute dogfight.
His friend's warning and his own skill saved Mr.
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON from
becoming a wartime casualty. He returned from Europe a decorated
pilot and enjoyed a successful business career before dying at
home in New Liskeard, Ontario, on June 25, aged 86.
Rowan Theodore
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON, who was called Bob by childhood Friends
and Hutch by fellow pilots, was born in Toronto on May 10, 1917,
the only child of an accountant father. He attended Upper Canada
College before entering engineering studies at Queen's University
in Kingston, Ontario
He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on August 14, 1940,
just as the Battle of Britain was underway. After training, he
was posted to No. 401 Squadron, flying Spitfires.
In August, 1942, he was transferred to No. 414 Squadron, known
as the Sarnia Imperials, which flew Mustangs from a base at Croydon,
Surrey.
On August 19, just eight days after arriving, Mr.
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON
flew a tactical reconnaissance mission during the ill-fated Dieppe
Raid.
The Imperials spent the next 12 months flying defensive patrols
over the south coast of England, as well as engaging in daytime
strafing raids on targets in occupied France.
Flying Officer
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON returned to Dieppe on the French coast
on March 26, 1943, flying low across the English Channel in his
Mustang before attacking two locomotives and an electrical transformer.
Typical of the harassment campaign was a mission Mr.
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON
and Mr. DOHERTY flew on April 1, as they scoured the French coast
from Fécamp to Dieppe, firing on electric power lines and shooting
up two freight engines.
On one such raid, Mr.
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON and another partner riddled
five locomotives in the Le Havre area.
Another time, a strafing run in the Breton coastal region damaged
seven locomotives. A wing of Mr.
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON's
Mustang was struck
by ground fire. He returned safely to base.
On June 6, 1943, the pair was assigned to escort a naval vessel
on a secret mission in the English Channel when Flying Officer
DOHERTY spotted a trio of Folke-Wulf 190s just as they launched
a surprise attack. His brief radio warning alerted Mr.
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON
to the danger, although
DOHERTY's
Mustang was almost immediately
shot down.
"For 20 minutes
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON fought off the three enemy aircraft
until the German pilots gave up their attacks and flew away,"
according to an account published in The Royal Canadian Air Force
Overseas, an official 1944 history. "Then, despite the fact that
his petrol was almost exhausted, the Mustang pilot resumed his
patrol over the naval vessel and saw it safely back to port.
"Thanks to
DOHERTY's warning and
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON's gallantry the naval
vessel had not been attacked during the engagement."
On landing, it was discovered that Mr.
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON's
Mustang had
but a thimbleful of fuel.
The Imperials were redesignated as a fighter reconnaissance squadron
later that month, as Allied planners began preparations for an
invasion of Europe.
They also took airborne before-and-after photographs of the launch
sites for V-1 flying bombs.
Once, Mr. HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON and Flying Officer B. B.
MOSSING were jumped
by eight German fighters, although Mr.
MOSSING damaged one with
a well-placed burst and three more were shot down by Spitfires
which came to the rescue of the reconnaissance Mustangs.
On the morning of the D-Day landings, Mr.
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON's squadron
was assigned to spot targets for the naval bombardment of coastal
defences stretching from Le Havre to Cherbourg. For Mr.
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON,
it was exactly one year to the day since he had tangled with
the trio of FW 190s.
The following days were a blur of predawn briefings, as the squadron
flew at first light to photograph mosaics of Caen, France, as
well as Luftwaffe airfields. Planners were desperate for information
on overnight changes in the battle area.
On Dominion Day, 1944, Mr.
HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON, by now a squadron leader,
was made commander of the Imperials. They moved base from Odiham,
Hampshire, to Ste-Honorine-de-Ducy, France, in August, replacing
their Mustangs with Spitfires. The squadron moved base every
few weeks to keep pace with the army's advances.
One of his final achievements was in providing valuable photographs
and reports in August, 1944, as the German Seventh and Fifth
Panzer armies tried desperately to escape an encroaching Allied
encirclement in an area that became known as the Falaise pocket.
Mr. HUTCHINSON/HUTCHISON was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in
1943 for his "very keen fighting spirit."
After the war, he was prominent in business in New Liskeard,
operating a travel agency, an insurance brokerage and a real-estate
company. He sat on the board of directors of the Northern Telephone
Company Ltd.
He leaves his wife of 54 years, Rosemary (née
KERR,) their daughter
and two sons, and two grand_sons.
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