1899-1988

Frederic R. Bamforth was born in Ontario, Canada on May 19, 1899. He studied mathematics at Queen's University where he obtained a B.A. in 1921 and an M.A. in 1922. He then served as an instructor at Albert College 1922-25. He then attended the University of Chicago, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1927. He wrote a thesis entitled "A Classification of Boundary Value Problems for a System of Ordinary Differential Equations of the Second Order" under the direction of Gilbert Ames Bliss.

After serving as instructor at Chicago for one year, he was awarded a National Research Fellowship which he used to visit Harvard 1928-29, where he worked with George David Birkhoff. During 1928-29 he was an assistant professor at Cornell. In 1930 he was appointed assistant professor at Ohio State. He was promoted to associate professor in 1936 and then to professor in 1942. While at Ohio State, Bamforth was very active in developing the graduate program in mathematics, directing seven Ph.D. students.

In 1950 he accepted an appointment as professor at Otterbein College where he taught until his retirement in 1958. He came out of retirement to teach at Otterbein again from 1962 to 1968.

He died in Florida on June 15, 1988.

Department of Mathematics