Professor Walter Ledermann, one of the founding members of the mathematics department at Sussex, died on 22 May aged 98.
Walter joined the department when it first opened in October 1962. He was appointed as a Reader and promoted to Professor in 1965.
He retired in 1978, being unusually granted two extra years; however, he continued to teach undergraduates and, remarkably, gave revision lectures till May 2000, when he was 89.
He was a distinguished algebraist but also published articles on statistics and number theory. His books for undergraduates and postgraduates in Routledge and Kegan Paul series, of which he was the founding editor, are still used. After retirement he edited and partially wrote the Handbook of Applicable Mathematics, a six-volume encyclopaedia.
His charm, care, empathy and total commitment made him extremely popular both with all his colleagues and all the students. No mathematics student ever felt his lectures were other than unsurpassable.
A memorial meeting in the Meeting House will take place on 8 October at 2.30pm. Details will shortly be available on the mathematics website or by contacting Fiona Childs (f.j.childs@sussex.ac.uk, ext. 7638) in the Department of Mathematics.