The owner of a company tells his employees, “You worked very hard this year, therefore the company’s profits increased dramatically. As a reward, I'm giving everyone a check for $5,000!”
Thrilled, the employees gather round and high five one another.
“And if you work with the same zeal next year, I'll sign those checks!”
Julian Lowell CoolidgeBorn 28 Sep 1873; died 5 Mar 1954 at age 80. American mathematician and educator noted for numerous published works in theoretical mathematics. He earned a B.A. degree at Harvard (1895), then a B.Sc. (1897) from Oxford, England, the first natural science degree ever awarded at Oxford. He began teaching at Groton School, Conn. (1897-99) where one of his pupils was Franklin D Roosevelt, the future U.S. president. Coolidge was an instructor at Harvard University, taking leave to study abroad (1902-04) with Corrado Segre at Turin and Eduard Studyat the University of Bonn ( Ph.D. 1904). When he returned to Harvard, he remained there for the rest of his career. Later in life, he took an interest in his subject's history, writing Mathematics of the Great Amateurs (1949).« |
