VALE: Dr Desmond Fearnley-Sander

The Archivists has been attempting to gain an overview of Des’ professional life and after a number of unsuccessful forays, happened to contact the School of Mathematics at UTas  who put them in touch with Dr Barry Gardner. Small world !  Barry and Graeme Rainbow had boarded at SVC during the late 1950’s – early 60’s.  He hailed from Smithton.  Many thanks Barry for putting the following together. 

Des completed a BSc (Hons) degree at UTas (Honours in Mathematics) in about 1961 or 62 and then went to ANU where he did an MSc. From there he went to Seattle and did two further years of post graduate study of Mathematics at the University of Washington.

 His next move was to a lecturing position at California State College at San Bernardino. He remained there for a number of years and on a couple of occasions while he was there, he spent the (northern) summer vacation lecturing in Mathematics at UTas.

Des returned to Australia in about 1969 to take up a position at the University of Western Australia in Perth. His next and final academic position was at UTas from 1975 till his retirement around the turn of the century. Shortly after retirement Des moved to Melbourne.

Among his mathematical interests Des included the history of Mathematics, and in 1980 he won a Lester R.Ford Award of the Mathematical Association of America for an article on the 19th Century German mathematician Hermann Grassmann.

The following was provided by Des as part of a profile for a 2017 reunion his  St Virgil’s peer group: 

Very lucky husband of Mary, father of Ben, William and Amy, grandfather of Finn, Frankie and Eleanor. brother of Tony.  As someone who loves Tasmania, I somewhat envy those who chose not to leave. The privileged life of an academic has other benefits, and I have enjoyed living in Canberra, Seattle, Riverside, San Bernardino, Fremantle, and Hobart, with long leaves in Dublin, Edinburgh and Champaign, Illinois, plus holidays in Paris. Since my early retirement from UTAS, Mary’s work has taken her, and me, to Armidale, Flores, Jakarta and Banda Aceh. Nowadays we are almost settled in Melbourne.