Paradigm, Vo. 2, Issue 3 (July, 2001)

John Fauvel, who had been a member of the Colloquium's committee since its earliest days in the late 1980s, has died aged 53. He recently suffered a liver failure, and was scheduled to have a transplant. However his health declined to the point where he could not be operated on, and he died on Saturday 12 May. In the last conversation we had, a few weeks ago, he was cheerful and courageous; in hospital, after it had become clear that his life could not be saved, he impressed the staff with his dignified calm.

John's death comes as a great shock, even though we knew that his health was at considerable risk. I was first introduced to him by a historian of mathematics who described him, in a quaint but apposite phrase, as `the archbishop of the study of maths textbooks'. His involvement with the Colloquium led to some fruitful joint meetings with the British Society for the History of Mathematics. John was a leading light of the BSHM, editing its newsletter for several years and also serving as its president. He was a prolific writer, writing on Newton (Let Newton be!, 1988), maths in Oxford (Oxford figures, 2000) and in several essays and collections on the use of history in maths education. He had studied at the universities of Essex (B.A. 1970) and Warwick (M.Sc. 1971, M.Phil. 1977).  He was at the time of his death senior lecturer in the history of mathematics at the Open University.

John's death leaves a large gap in our ranks. He was working on a guide to maths textbooks which we had hoped to publish next year. We shall try to arrange for it to be completed, but it is difficult to think of anyone with the combination of knowledge, talents and interests John showed in the sample material he sent me. In committee and Colloquium meetings John was always good value. He was able to cut through irrelevancies and seize on the crucial point; and if his barbed wit raised hackles at times, it was always clear that he was a person of generosity and commitment. Fools were not suffered, but friends and colleagues received unstinting support. In 1999 he agreed to act as webmaster for our new website, but in the event  his other commitments made it impossible for him to pursue the job, which is now in the vigorous hands of Ian Westbury at the University of Illinois.

 Chris Stray

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