Person: Olive, Gloria
Gloria Olive was an American mathematician who worked on on applications of generalised powers.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Lazar Olive was born on 13 October 1876 in Poland (although formally it was Russia at this time) and emigrated to the USA.
- Gloria Olive completed her school education at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York, graduating in 1940.
- After graduating, Olive was appointed as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Wisconsin where she spent the two academic years 1944-46.
- From Wisconsin, Olive moved to the University of Arizona in 1946 where she was appointed as an instructor.
- Her next appointment in Oregon State University in 1950 was as a Graduate Assistant and after this one-year post she left the academic world for a short time, taking a job as a cryptographer in the U.S. Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. After a year in Washington, Olive returned to an academic position being appointed to Anderson College in 1952.
- At Anderson College, Olive built up the mathematics department and began to become interested in mathematical research, in particular studying generalised powers.
- C C MacDuffee, who had taught Olive at the University of Wisconsin, agreed to accept a visiting professorship at Oregon State University so that he could supervise her doctoral thesis.
- Sadly he died in 1961 and Olive was left without a thesis advisor.
- Olive continued to work at Anderson College until 1968 when she accepted a professorship at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
- Olive stayed at the University of Wisconsin-Superior until 1972, the year after it joined the University of Wisconsin, and went to New Zealand where she was appointed as a senior lecturer at the University of Otago.
- Her exam results were consistently higher than others, and examiners meetings took a familiar form, Gloria putting her arguments against scaling, with a freshness as though she were making them for the first time, and with so much energy that for much of the meeting she was standing, and frequently gesturing, at her seat, the rest of us putting, with stony patience (if only in our minds), the counter-arguments.
- My own relationship with Gloria was instantly turbulent.
- Much of Olive's research was on applications of generalised powers.
- Towards the end of her life, Gloria relied on a thick magnifying glass to read, but eventually even that proved ineffective, and when she was no longer able to walk she consciously allowed herself to die.
- There was a death notice in the 'Otago Daily Times' but, at Gloria's request, no funeral.
Born 8 June 1923, New York City, USA. Died 17 April 2006, Dunedin, New Zealand.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Usa, Women
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
