Ralph P. Boas Jr., 79-year-old professor emeritus of mathematics, died July 25 [1992] in Seattle.
A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, at Alice Millar Chapel, followed by a reception at the Omni- Orrington Hotel in Evanston.
Boas came to Northwestern in 1950 and was on the faculty until his retirement in 1980, serving as chair of the mathematics department from 1957-72. He continued to teach, write and edit as the Henry S. Noyes Professor Emeritus of Mathematics until moving to Seattle in 1988.
His research focused on functions of one complex variable, but his knowledge was much broader as he was the author of more than 200 papers and five books. His textbook,SEntire Functions,S is still the standard text in the field.
He was former editor of Mathematical Reviews, The American Mathematical Monthly and the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications. Boas served as president of the Mathematical Association of America, a group that awarded him the Distinguished Service Award.
Boas received his bachelorUs and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. He was a National Research Council Fellow at Princeton University and in Cambridge, England, and a Guggenheim Fellow at Northwestern.
During World War II, he was on the faculty of the U.S. Navy Pre-Flight School.
He is survived by his wife, Mary, who is professor emeritus of physics at De Paul University; two sons, Harold and Ralph; and a daughter, Anne.
