20. Earle Raymond Hedrick

President, 1929–1930

Ph.D. University of Göttingen, Germany, 1901

Hedrick taught mathematics at the University of Missouri from 1903-1924, went on to become head of the mathematics department at the University of California from 1924-1937, and then was named Vice President and Provost of University of California, Los Angeles, from 1937-1942. He was instrumental in developing the University at Los Angeles into a strong institution. Hedrick was very interested in and wrote extensively about the problems in the teaching of mathematics (from secondary school through graduate school), and problems of engineers.

He was active in the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, the American Society of Mechanical Engineering and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. In 1916, he became first president of the Mathematical Association of America. Starting in 1921, Hedrick served for sixteen years as editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, during which time he raised the standard of accepted manuscripts and effective presentation of the complex content—even meeting with the printer to study the capability of the machines and establishing a stylesheet which improved the process and saved the Society considerable money.

Additional information

• MR Author Profile
• A Semicentennial History of the American Mathematical Society, 1888--1938, by Raymond Clare Archibald (AMS, 1938), which contains CV, honors, bibliography, biographical notes and sources.
• The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
• Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Earle Raymond Hedrick, 1937-1942, an article on Hedrick, Vice President and Provost of UCLA
• A Guide to the E.R. Hedrick Collection, 1905-1907 at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin