WILLIAM WISTAR COMFORT II

WILLIAM WISTAR COMFORT II, Edward Burr Van Vleck Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus, died Nov. 28, 2016, at age 83. He received his B.A. from Haverford College, and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington (Seattle), and was an expert on point-set topology, ultrafilters, set theory, and topological groups. He joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1967. Retiring in 2007, he had supervised 17 Ph.D. theses and three M.A. theses, and had been a key figure in the founding of the Math Workshop, a drop-in help center, which remains widely used today. He published three books, including Chain Conditions in Topology (Cambridge University Press, 1982), and well over 100 mathematical papers. Named an American Mathematical Society Fellow in the inaugural class of AMS Fellows in 2013, he was recognized for his outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics. “Wis was a Quaker, a musician who played the trombone in a Dixieland band, and a dignified gentleman who exuded collegiality,” wrote Joyce Jacobson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. He is survived by his daughter and his son. His wife, longtime Wesleyan staff member Mary Connie Comfort, passed away in May 2016.