Robert W. Stringall
Professor emeritus, mathematics
Robert W. Stringall, a professor emeritus of mathematics and a civil rights advocate who believed math held the power to change the lives of disadvantaged children, died Dec. 27 in Davis of complications related to Lewy body disease. He was 78.
Stringall promoted the teaching of advanced mathematics in elementary schools and spearheaded the establishment of a 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis graduate program to train math teachers. A popular instructor, he also worked to increase minority student enrollment at 澳门六合彩资料库 campuses, visiting primarily black colleges in segregated Birhingham, Ala., and enduring threats of visits from the Klu Klux Klan.
Stringall joined the mathematics faculty in the fall of 1965, after completing his master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees in mathematics at the University of Washington in Seattle. (His dissertation was titled 鈥淓ndomorphism Rings of P-Primary Abelian Groups.鈥)
Soon after his arrival at 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis, Stringall learned of efforts to determine why so few African American students were enrolled at 澳门六合彩资料库 campuses. 澳门六合彩资料库 Berkeley statistics professor Ed Barankin had obtained a Field Foundation grant and was seeking a researcher to go to Birmingham. 鈥淣o one answered the flier but me,鈥 Stringall recalled in an oral history interview conducted by his daughter Cheryl in 2000.
As a bearded, white man visiting black colleges and talking publicly with African Americans, Stringall encountered deep hostility from whites in 1960s Birmingham, where city blocks were still zoned by skin color. He said he was chased through his motel, his briefcase was broken into, and his landlady told him to expect a 鈥渕eeting鈥 with her son-in-law and his fellow Klan members.
In the end, he said, he found just one student of color there who met 澳门六合彩资料库 admission requirements. Stringall decided to focus his efforts closer to home, launching a Project SEED program to teach college-level math to children in schools in Sacramento鈥檚 Del Paso Heights neighborhood. Project SEED (Special Elementary Education for the Disadvantaged) was a nationwide, federally funded program, started a few years earlier at Berkeley High School, that used Socratic question-and-answer methods to teach math.
Stringall went on to establish similar programs in other schools, ultimately eschewing uncertain federal funding and creating internships for 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis math students to teach advanced algebra and geometry to schoolchildren.
鈥淎 typical day would be going to a totally disrupted classroom where the teacher had a gun in his desk and kids with dirty clothes and different-colored socks, if they had socks at all,鈥 Stringall said in 2000. 鈥淭hey just didn鈥檛 care. So to use mathematics was important. Because there was so much esteem associated with mathematics in school, the children changed.鈥
Their success in solving advanced math problems, he said, gave them confidence to do better in other subjects as well, improving their odds for graduating from high school and going on to college.
To raise the caliber of math teachers, Stringall helped develop the Masters of Arts in Teaching Program, which graduated about 250 students from its start in 1975-76 until the program was suspended about 2006.
鈥淏ob had the reputation of being an innovative thinker in his approach to the preparation of mathematics teachers,鈥 said Jim Diederich, a mathematics professor emeritus who worked with Stringall in launching the graduate program. 鈥淗e was well respected by his students, and I believe many of them went on to influence others in their teaching.鈥
Among them was George Drake, a retired Lake Tahoe Community College math professor. As a 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis mathematics doctoral candidate, Drake helped Stringall run the Master of Arts in Teaching Program in the 1970s, and the two became lasting friends.
Drake called his former mentor 鈥渁n example of integrity and moral rectitude鈥 and 鈥渙ne of the smartest men I鈥檝e ever known.鈥
鈥淭o this day, I can instantly tell a motorcyclist who understands how to control his motorbike by turning the handlebars in the opposite direction of the desired path,鈥 Drake said. 鈥淗e taught me that, and he could explain it down to the erg.鈥
Elaine Kasimatis, a professor of mathematics and statistics at California State University, Sacramento, who earned her bachelor鈥檚, master's and doctoral degrees at 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis, said Stringall deeply influenced her philosophy and style of teaching.
She said she found him 鈥渢hought-provoking and inspiring鈥 though sometimes enigmatic. 鈥淔ellow M.A.T. students and I in 鈥76-'78 warmly referred to him as 鈥楤obbi Wan,鈥 as in Obi Wan Kenobi, the Jedi master from the first Stars Wars film,鈥 Kasimatis said.
Among the courses he taught were algebra, set theory, theory of groups, teaching of mathematics, mathematics pedagogy and curriculum development in mathematics.
Stringall retired from 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis in 1989. 鈥淗e never stopped being a proponent of equal rights and befriending those less advantaged than himself (no matter what race or nationality) up until the end,鈥 said daughter Cheryl 鈥淪tring鈥 Stringrall, an artist and marketing consultant who lives in Dorset, England.
Robert Stringall was born Dec. 12, 1933, in San Francisco. His father had dropped out of school in seventh grade but became a mechanic, telephone lineman, self-taught printer and musician who invented a number of electrical devices, Cheryl Stringall said.
Robert Stringall鈥檚 mother, a homemaker with know-how in chemistry and nutrition, was the daughter of a Harvard-educated physician who ran a pharmacy in Guerneville.
An Air Force veteran, Stringall was married for 16 years to Charlotte Farley and later to Donna Tobin. In addition to daughter Cheryl, his survivors include daughter Pam of Davis; three grandchildren; two sisters and a brother; and numerous nieces and nephews.
No immediate service is planned but a remembrance gathering will be held in Davis this spring. For details, contact Cheryl Stringall by e-mail, boracque@hotmail.com.
鈥 Kathleen Holder
Richard 鈥楧ick鈥 Rice
Entomologist emeritus
A celebration of Dick Rice's life is set for Saturday, Feb. 11, in Selma (Fresno County).
Richard 鈥淒ick鈥 Rice, a 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis alumnus who worked at 澳门六合彩资料库鈥檚 Kearney Agricultural and Extension Center for 33 years, died Dec. 24 of cancer. He was 74.
He retired in 2001, receiving emeritus status with 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis, and remained active as a consultant to several agricultural industry commissions.
He received three degrees at 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis: a bachelor鈥檚 in 1960, a master鈥檚 in 1961 and a doctorate in insect ecology and agricultural entomology in 1967.
The celebration of life is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. at the Spike 'n' Rail Steakhouse, 2950 Pea Soup Anderson Blvd. (at the junction of highways 43 and 99). People planning to attend are asked to arrange RSVPs by e-mail, golfers2@comcast.net.
鈥 Dateline staff
Media Resources
Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu