Person: Woodard, Dudley Weldon
Dudley Woodard was an American mathematician and educator who was the second African-American to earn a PhD in Mathematics.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Dudley R Woodard, born in Atlanta, Georgia, worked as a Railway Mail Clerk.
- Later in the year 1900, Woodard moved to Ohio to study at Wilberforce College which had been founded by Methodists in 1856 to educate African Americans, particularly to train them as teachers.
- Woodard graduated from Wilberforce College in 1903 with an A.B. in mathematics.
- After the award of his Master's degree, Woodard was appointed to the Tuskegee Institute where he taught from 1907 to 1914.
- Woodard's age on the Marriage License is is given as 27 (he was actually still 26) and Gertrude's age is given as 25.
- While at Tuskegee, Woodard published Negro progress in a Mississippi town, being a study of conditions in Jackson, Mississippi (1909), Practical Arithmetic (1911), and The Teaching of Geometry at Tuskegee (1913).
- The matter contained herein has all been taken by Mr D W Woodard, the author, from the industrial and business operations of the Institute.
- The title page gives the author as Dudley W Woodard, Head of Division of Mathematics, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.
- In 1914, Woodard left the Tuskegee Institute and became a teacher at Wilberforce College where he had himself studied as a student.
- Woodard was awarded a Ph.D. on Wednesday, 28 June 1928, for his thesis On Two-Dimensional Analysis Situs with Special Reference to the Jordan Curve Theorem.
- We note that with the award of a Ph.D., Woodard became the second African American to be awarded a Ph.D. in mathematics (the first was Elbert Frank Cox in 1925).
- In 1929 Woodard established a Master of Science programme in mathematics at Howard University.
- Claytor had entered Howard University in September 1925 where he was taught by Woodard.
- Advised by Woodard, Claytor took the courses offered on group theory, topology, number theory, real analysis and complex analysis.
- Woodard achieved other important things at Howard.
- In an age of discrimination, Dudley Weldon Woodard had competed and triumphed in the face of overwhelming odds.
- Deane Montgomery, former president of the American Mathematical Society and the International Mathematical Union described Woodard as, "an extremely nice man, well-balanced personally." Leo Zippin, who was an internationally known specialist in Woodard's field, said that he was "one of the noblest men I've ever known." Dr Woodard was not only a brilliant mathematician, but a man of high intelligence and dignity; he enjoyed life in spite of his racial environment.
- In April 1942, Woodard completed a Registration Form.
- The National Association of Mathematicians honours Woodard with the Claytor-Woodard Lectures.
Born 3 October 1881, Galveston, Texas, USA. Died 15 July 1965, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
African American, Origin Usa
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
