John W. Woll Jr. *56

John died Feb. 23, 2022, at home in Bellingham, Wash. 

He was born near Philadelphia May 19, 1931. He excelled at mathematics and graduated from Haverford in 1952 with highest honors. He began studies at Penn Medicine but found that mathematics was his first love academically. Awarded a National Science Foundation scholarship, he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics at Princeton in 1956, specializing in the field of stochastic processes.

John held faculty positions at Lehigh, UC Berkeley, and the University of Washington before he joined the mathematics department at Western Washington State College (now Western Washington University) in 1968. He taught there until retiring in 2008.

He loved mathematics: exploring the interconnectedness of various areas of mathematics, working on mathematical problems, discussing mathematical points with students and colleagues, and learning new and interesting approaches in mathematics. In 1966 he published a book, Functions of  Several Variables. 

John enjoyed mountaineering with his family and friends; his friends introduced him to kayaking and skiing, and those became favorite activities as well.

John is survived by his wife, Margaret; daughters Holly and Heather by his first wife, Pat; stepchildren Dana, Cristina, Richard, and Mike; and 11 grandchildren.

Graduate alumni memorials are prepared by the APGA.