{"id":165773,"date":"2020-10-28T15:28:32","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T19:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=165773"},"modified":"2020-10-29T08:56:26","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T12:56:26","slug":"memoriam-charles-vinsonhaler-professor-emeritus-mathematics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2020\/10\/memoriam-charles-vinsonhaler-professor-emeritus-mathematics\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: Charles Vinsonhaler, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Editor\u2019s note: Charles Vinsonhaler,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>P<\/span><\/i>rofessor<\/span><\/i>\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span><\/i>M<\/span><\/i>athematics<\/span><\/i>, passed away last week. Born in<\/span><\/i>\u00a0Winfield, Kansas in 1942<\/span><\/i>, he earned\u00a0<\/span><\/i>his<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Ph.D.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0in\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Mathematics from the University of Washington<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>A celebration of his life will be\u00a0<\/span><\/i>i<\/span><\/i>n Spring 2021.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Vinsonhaler\u2019s<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>colleagues in the\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Department of Mathematics<\/span><\/i>\u00a0pay tribute to\u00a0<\/span><\/i>him<\/span><\/i>\u00a0in this article<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/i>]<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the\u00a0<\/span>passing<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of Charles Vinsonhaler,\u00a0<\/span>professor emeritus of mathematics<\/span>\u00a0at UConn<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Vinsonhaler, widely known as Chuck,<\/span>\u00a0was on the UConn\u00a0<\/span>mathematics\u00a0<\/span>faculty\u00a0<\/span>since<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>1968\u00a0<\/span>and served as Department Head\u00a0<\/span>from\u00a0<\/span>1997-2003<\/span>. He founded the department\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>award-winning<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Actuarial Science program<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and played a key role in the founding of the Goldenson Center<\/span>, a think-tank for applied actuarial research at UConn<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>He retired in 2007.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Those of us who have known Chuck for many years remember, with great fondness, both his wisdom and the warm friendship and humor that he shared with us,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>said<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>William\u00a0<\/span>Abikoff<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>a colleague and professor emeritus in mathematics<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0<\/span>got\u00a0<\/span>to know him only over the last few\u00a0<\/span>years and<\/span> will treasure that memory,” said current Department Head Ambar Sengupta.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the span of his career in academia, Vinsonhaler published\u00a0<\/span>research on\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span>lgebra\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span>ctuarial\u00a0<\/span>s<\/span>cienc<\/span>e\u00a0<\/span>i<\/span>n topics including abelian groups, rings, and representations of partially ordered sets<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0He\u00a0<\/span>co-<\/span>wrote\u00a0<\/span>P<\/span><\/i>roblem S<\/span><\/i>olving<\/span><\/i><\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0a textbook mainly geared toward students who dislike math,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>the monograph\u00a0<\/span>Advanced\u00a0<\/span><\/i>T<\/span><\/i>opics in\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Li<\/span><\/i>near\u00a0<\/span><\/i>A<\/span><\/i>lgebra<\/span><\/i><\/a>. He supervised at least\u00a0<\/span>eight doctoral students\u2019 dissertations<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and advised numerous\u00a0<\/span>master\u2019s stu<\/span>dents.\u00a0<\/span>Vinsonhaler h<\/span>eld\u00a0<\/span>a number of<\/span>\u00a0visiting positions, including at the University of Canterbury, N<\/span>ew Zealand,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>where he was an Erskine Fellow.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0In April 2019, the department\u2019s Actuarial Science program arranged an event to celebrate <\/span>Vinsonhaler. Students and colleagues in the Mathematics Department shared memories with him<\/span>, including some\u00a0<\/span>former students who became his colleagues<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ambar Sengupta, department head and professor of mathematics and a colleague of Vinsonhaler\u2019s, shared a comment about him from one of his former students<\/span>:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>Changed the path of my life – I majored in math and have a quantitative profession. He is caring, has a great sense of humor and his deep understanding is an inspiration. Math is beautiful and sharing its depth touches\u00a0<\/span>one’s<\/span>\u00a0soul – this professor helps you share this experience.<\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Editor\u2019s note: Charles Vinsonhaler,\u00a0Professor\u00a0of\u00a0Mathematics, passed away last week. Born in\u00a0Winfield, Kansas in 1942, he earned\u00a0his\u00a0Ph.D.\u00a0in\u00a0Mathematics from the University of Washington.\u00a0A celebration of his life will be\u00a0in Spring 2021.\u00a0Vinsonhaler\u2019s\u00a0colleagues in the\u00a0Department of Mathematics\u00a0pay tribute to\u00a0him\u00a0in this article.]\u00a0 It is with great sadness that we inform you of the\u00a0passing\u00a0of Charles Vinsonhaler,\u00a0professor emeritus of mathematics\u00a0at UConn.\u00a0\u00a0 Vinsonhaler, widely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":165774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2214],"class_list":["post-165773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 05:29:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165773"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165780,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165773\/revisions\/165780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/165774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165773"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=165773"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=165773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}