Our long-time colleague Professor Eneritus David Lay passed away October 12, 2018.

David earned his BA at Aurora College in 1962, and his PhD at UCLA in 1966. He then came to Maryland where he rose through the ranks to Professor in 1977. A gifted teacher, he won the campus Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award in 1997. A vibrant member of the department’s functional analysis group, he published nearly 40 research articles in the area of functional analysis, in addition to authoring or co-authoring 6 books. His very popular book Linear Algebra and its Applications has been translated into (at least) French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Korean. He also served on many committees in the Mathematics Department, on campus, and in the mathematical community. In the late 1990’s, David worked in the Dean’s office, then retired because of medical issues in 1999. He was a wonderful colleague.

A mathematical biography of Lay has been written by Harm Bart, and can be read here (pages 37-40).