Background
Hurwitz, Wallie Abraham was born on February 18, 1886 in Fulton, Missouri, United States. Son of Harry and Emma (Mayfield) Hurwitz.
Hurwitz, Wallie Abraham was born on February 18, 1886 in Fulton, Missouri, United States. Son of Harry and Emma (Mayfield) Hurwitz.
Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts, University of Missouri, 1906. Master of Arts, Harvard, 1907; Doctor of Philosophy, Göttingen, 1910. Unmarried.
In 1912 Hurwitz joined the mathematics faculty of Cornell University, where he remained until he died in 1958 at age seventy-one. His doctoral students include R. H. Cameron and Florence M. Mears. Hurwitz"s private library contained nearly three thousand books
This private library had many books on cryptography, several of which were borrowed by the United States Navy early in World World War II because there were no copies of them in the Library of Congress.
Hurwitz had an extensive knowledge of music and a large collection of Gilbert and Sullivan scores, reviews, programs, and related memorabilia. He invested brilliantly in the stock market, selling out shortly before the 1929 crash and buying in close to the bottom.
Hurwitz left his considerable financial estate to the University of Missouri, Harvard, and Cornell.
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Member American Mathematics Society, Mathematics Association America, Circolo Matematico di Palermo, London Mathematics Society, Societe Mathematique de France, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi.