Paul Sally

Sally was born in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts on January 29, 1933.[6][7] He was a star basketball player at Boston College High School.[4][7] He received his BS and MS degrees from Boston College in 1954 and 1956.[8]

After a short career in Boston area high schools and at Boston College[9] he entered the first class of mathematics graduate students at Brandeis in 1957 [4] and earned his PhD in 1965.[6] During his graduate career he married Judith D. Sally and had three children in three years. David, the oldest, is a Visiting Associate Professor of Business Administration at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College,[4][10] Stephen is a partner at Ropes & Gray,[4][11] and Paul, the youngest, is Superintendent at New Trier High School.[4][12]

Sally was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1948.[13] The condition resulted in his use of an eye patch and two prosthetic legs,[14] which caused him to be widely referred to as "Professor Pirate," and "The Math Pirate" around the University of Chicago campus.[7] He was known to detest cell phones in class and has destroyed several over the years by inviting students to stomp on them or by throwing them out of a window.[4]

Sally joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1965 and taught there until his death.[4] He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study from 1967–68, 1971–72, 1981–82, and 1983–84.[15]

While at the IAS he collaborated with Joseph Shalika.[16] In 1983, he became the first director of the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, which is responsible for the Everyday Mathematics program (also called "Chicago math").[4]

He founded Seminars for Elementary Specialists and Mathematics Educators (SESAME) in 1992.[4] He co-founded the Young Scholars Program with Dr. Diane Herrmann in 1988, providing mathematical enrichment for gifted Chicago-area students in grades 7–12.[4][17]

Sally died December 30, 2013, aged 80, from congestive heart failure, at the University of Chicago Hospital.[2][18][19]

• Amoco Foundation Award for Long-Term Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 1995[8][20]
• American Mathematical Society Distinguished Service Award, 2000[21]
• Deborah and Franklin Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics of the Mathematical Association of America, 2002[21]
• Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, 2012.[22]

• Sally, P.J., Jr.; Shalika, J.A. (1968). "Characters of the discrete series of representations of SL(2) over a local field". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 61 (4): 1231–1237. Bibcode:1968PNAS...61.1231S. doi:10.1073/pnas.61.4.1231. PMC 225245. PMID 16591722.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Sally, Judith (2003). Trimathlon: A Workout Beyond the School Curriculum. AK Peters, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-56881-184-0.
• Sally, Jr., Paul J.; Diane L. Herrmann (2004). Number, Shape and Symmetry: an Introduction to Mathematics. Pacific Grove: Brooks Cole. ISBN 0-534-40539-8.
• Sally, Jr., Paul J.; Diane L. Herrmann (2005). Number Theory and Geometry for College Students. Pacific Grove: Brooks Cole. ISBN 0-534-40536-3.
• Sally, Judith (2007). Roots to Research: A Vertical Development of Mathematical Problems. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-0-8218-4403-8.[23]
• Sally, Jr., Paul J. (2008). Tools of the Trade: Introduction to Advanced Mathematics. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-0-8218-4634-6.

• Paul Sally at IMDb
• Paul Sally at the Mathematics Genealogy Project