Amy Catheryne Patterson King (December 30, 1928 – June 7, 2014) was an American mathematician and mathematics educator who became Foundation Professor of mathematics at Eastern Kentucky University, and was recognized for her distinguished teaching by the Kentucky Section of the Mathematical Association of America.

Personal life

Amy Catheryne Patterson was born on December 30, 1928, in Douglas, Wyoming. She married Don King, who became a professor of dentistry;[1] they had no children.[2] Her brother, James D. Patterson, was also an academic, a professor of physics at the Florida Institute of Technology.[1]

She became a member of the Centenary United Methodist Church of Lexington, Kentucky. She died on June 7, 2014, of burns and smoke inhalation from a fire at her home in Lexington.[1][2]

Education and career

King was a graduate of the University of Missouri. She earned a master's degree from Wichita State University[1] in 1960,[3] with the master's thesis Selected methods for solving eigenvalue problems by variational procedures.[4] She joined the Mathematical Association of America in 1961,[5] and coauthored the 1963 book Pathways to Probability: History of the Mathematics of Certainty and Chance with Cecil Byron Read, published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston.[6] She became a mathematics instructor, including stints at Wichita State University,[1] Washburn University, the University of Kansas, and the University of Kentucky.[7]

In later life she returned to graduate study,[1] working with S. M. Shah at the University of Kentucky on transcendental functions of bounded index.[8] She completed her Ph.D. in 1970,[9][10] with the dissertation A Class of Entire Functions of Bounded Index and Radii of Univalence of Some Functions of Zero Order supervised by Shah.[10] Her work in the early 1970s also included surveying the contributions of women in mathematics.[9]

She taught mathematics at Eastern Kentucky University from 1972 until her retirement as Foundation Professor emerita in 1998.[1][11]

Recognition

King became the inaugural winner of the annual Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics of the Kentucky Section of the Mathematical Association of America, in 1992.[1][12] She was named Foundation Professor at Eastern Kentucky University in 1993;[13] this was "the highest honor the school gives to its teachers".[1] A technology-enhanced mathematics classroom at Eastern Kentucky University was named for her in 2011, honoring her role as a "central figure in mathematics education at EKU".[11]

Wichita State University offers a scholarship named for her,[7] as does Eastern Kentucky University.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Dr Amy Catheryne Patterson King", Lexington Herald-Leader, June 8, 2014, retrieved 2021-08-23 – via Find a Grave
  2. 1 2 Robinson, Bill (June 9, 2014), "King was pioneer for women in math", Richmond Register
  3. ↑ "In memoriam", The shocker, Wichita State University, Fall 2014, retrieved 2021-08-23
  4. ↑ WorldCat catalog entry for Selected methods for solving eigenvalue problems by variational procedures, retrieved 2021-08-23
  5. ↑ In memoriam, Mathematical Association of America, retrieved 2021-08-23
  6. ↑ Reviews of Pathways to Probability:
  7. 1 2 Dr. Amy C. King Scholarship, Wichita State University, retrieved 2021-08-23
  8. ↑ King, Amy C.; Shah, S. M. (1972), "Indices of Lindelöf functions and their derivatives", The Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics, 2 (4): 579–593, doi:10.1216/RMJ-1972-2-4-579; reviewed by Günter Frank, MR0310243, and I. N. Baker, Zbl 0262.30027
  9. 1 2 King, Amy C.; McCroskey, Rosemary (1977), "Woman Ph.D.'s in mathematics in USA and Canada: 1886-1973", Philosophia Mathematica, University of Toronto Press, North York, Ontario, 13–14: 79–129, doi:10.1093/philmat/s1-13-14.1.79, Zbl 0367.00036
  10. 1 2 "1970", Graduate Degrees Awarded (Doctoral Degrees), University of Kentucky Mathematics, retrieved 2021-08-23
  11. 1 2 New Math Labs Honor Retired Professors Ryoti, King, Eastern Kentucky University, February 18, 2011, archived from the original on 2015-09-11
  12. ↑ KYMAA Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, Kentucky Section of the Mathematical Association of America, retrieved 2021-08-23
  13. ↑ "Past Recipients by Year", Society of Foundation Professors, Eastern Kentucky University, retrieved 2021-08-23
  14. ↑ "Dr. Amy King Number e2πi Mathematics Scholarship", Scholarships, Eastern Kentucky University Department of Mathematics & Statistics, retrieved 2021-08-23
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