Olga R. Beaver

Our dear colleague, teacher, and friend, Ollie Beaver, who passed on Friday, was a mainstay of our department and the College. At a small gathering at the Faculty House Friday afternoon, Stewart Johnson (department chair), expressed our admiration and gratitude for her life amidst family and friends. Ollie founded and sustained the Summer Science Program (SSP) for admitted students from varied backgrounds. Her colleague Wendy Raymond wrote on Saturday:

Last night, I held an impromptu gathering of SSP students so that we could come together to grieve and to honor Ollie Beaver. The outpouring of respect, gratitude, and love from 29 students crammed into Paresky 220 for 90 minutes on a Friday night moved me immensely. We spoke Quaker-meeting style, so that everyone who wanted to share had room and time to do so. I heard about the immensely positive impacts of Ollie’s unflagging confidence in students’ abilities to learn calculus, particularly when students had no previous calculus experience; of her excellent, transformative teaching; of her invaluable academic advising skills; of her unwavering focus on students’ health and happiness even when she was ill; of her sense of humor that came out in endearing fashion; and of the enduring impact of her smile, with which she greeted students as they entered every class…. Ollie’s untimely passing is a devastating loss. But her legacy lives on in so many ways, not the least of which was shown by the generations of SSP students gathered on very short notice in her honor.

Largely for her work with SSP, Ollie received the second national Louise Hay Award of the Mathematical Association of America in 1991. The following material is taken with permission from that nomination.

The Hay Award Committee
Association for Women in Mathematics

I would like to nominate for The Louise Hay Award for Contributions to Mathematics Education Professor Olga Beaver. Professor Beaver is the director of a summer science program for minority students.  Currently she is also the Williams College Gaudino Scholar, a position to recognize and support major educational initiative.

In addition to my own nominating letter, enclosed are letters from her colleague Charles Lovett, letters from students Kristina Broadhurst and Burt Fealing, a summary of her activities as Director of the Summer Science Program, and her curriculum vitae.

From her early experiences as an excellent and popular teacher at Williams, Ollie became increasingly concerned by the difficulties experienced by the minority students in the sciences.  She realized that the problems did not stem from lack of ability or from the students’ backgrounds.  Rather, she saw a lack of encouragement and support for the few minority students in the sciences and, above all, too few successful role models.  While a majority student might experience as high frustration in a science course as a minority student, the majority student had many more sources from which he or she felt comfortable seeking help and encouragement.  All too often the minority student internalized the frustration and gave up (not only on the sciences, but on Williams entirely).

In 1987 Ollie became the first director of a  new Summer Science Program (SSP).  Her commitment has been complete and wholehearted.  It is clear that for her the most important and rewarding aspect of directing the program has been the involvement with the students.  What has been most extraordinary to witness is the change in spirit, not only of the minority students from SSP but also of the many more minority students who have not come through the SSP.  SSP students may learn some survival skills during their five‑week sojourn in the summer that non‑SSP students need to discover after they come to Williams, but the remarkable benefit of the SSP has been the confidence, the sense of mutual support and the feeling of trust of the institution that SSP students bring with them upon entry into Williams.  Notably, this spirit has been transmitted to other, non‑SSP students.  Now there are successful role models; students help each other.  Word gets around that people care here.

Ollie certainly has had a significant effect on many students.  Because of the Summer Science Program many minority students feel comfortable seeking her advice.  I could hardly list here all of the SSP students who drop by her office to say hello or to use her Kleenex.  She has dealt with academic problems, social problems, problems of the heart as well as with the joys of success and the excitement of future plans falling into place.  (Indeed, there is a large contingent of students who call her “mom.”)  She has dealt with midnight phone calls from parents whose children are ill; she has “found” students for parents who could not get through the phone system; she has been able to get Sawyer Library unlocked for a parent to get a look at her son’s honor thesis.

Moreover, her contacts with minority students go beyond the family of Summer Science.  For example, a couple of years ago one student sought her out to tell her that he wanted to leave Williams because he felt that he could not bear the financial burden of remaining.  She spent many hours talking with him, encouraging him to stay, convincing him to postpone his financial worries to a time “after Williams” when, because of a Williams education, he would clearly be able to cope.  He recently was named a Rhodes Scholar.  Another student came to see her when she was having a difficult time trying to deal with a conflict between her parents’ plans for her and her own goals;  Ollie was able to help her resolve the situation.  Minority students whom Ollie has never met say hello to her in passing on campus.

Frank Morgan, Chair, Department of Mathematics, October 9, 1991

 

Here are updates from those two former students:

Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2012
From: kristina broadhurst
I have a very heavy heart with Ollie’s passing, but was fortunate to have been able to visit with Ollie and Don last week. It provides me some comfort to have had that one last chance to tell her how much she’s meant to me over so many years. Thank you for reminding me of the letter. Though written in 1991, it is still true over 20 years later which is a testament to the impact of this great woman. The gifts of her encouragement, confidence and faith in me fueled a trajectory that made it possible for me to become not only a successful professional (graduate of Harvard Medical School and then UCLA Anderson School of Business), but more importantly, a successful person. I have tried very hard to pass on the gifts that Ollie gave me.  Her example has continued to live on in me, particularly via my long-standing passion for tutoring and mentoring with my focus being on at-risk youths. My time at Williams gave me an invaluable educational foundation, but Ollie literally changed my life….With sympathy, kindest regards, and thanks to Ollie, I am humbly able to sign my name…
Kristina M. Broadhurst, MD, MBA, Successful Person

Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2012 22:37:58 +0000
I am extremely saddened to hear about the passing of Ollie Beaver. Ollie was extremely instrumental in my development and in my time at Williams. …we are all saddened by the loss of Ollie, however, our lives are much more fulfilled and enriched because of her commitment to help us develop to become the leaders that we are today. Ollie’s legacy lives on in all of the people that she helped inside and outside of the classroom.

Respectfully,
Burt
_________________________
Burt M. Fealing
ITT Corporation
1133 Westchester Avenue
White Plains, NY 10604

There are more comments on Facebook at Eph Alum and here below. Many thanks to the contributors.

Memorial Minute.

We are creating an annual Olga R. Beaver Prize in mathematics to a student for contributions to our department. If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to its endowment, send a check made out to Williams College, with a note that it is for the Olga R. Beaver prize in math, to Lewis Fisher, Williams College Development Office, 75 Park Street, Williamstown, MA 01267.

11 comments on Olga R. Beaver

  1. Though I’ve only been at Williams for a few years, I was fortunate to have the chance to get to know Ollie. She helped me numerous times in making the adjustment to teaching and serving at Williams, always had helpful advice or the right name to contact when issues arose, and could always figure out what costumes my kids were wearing on Halloween. It’s an honor to serve in the department and community she helped create.

    –Steve Miller

  2. My heart goes out to Ollie’s family. It’s not an exaggeration to say that her real analysis class changed my life. She was a great professor. The world is a little dimmer without her.

    I took real analysis from Prof Beaver in the early 90s. She taught me how to read math books. I use that every day now – on a good day. Her class also was the one where I realized that I liked math and wanted to learn more math after Williams.
    John Staudenmayer ’92

  3. What a wonderful person. It warms my heart to read some of these comments and descriptions, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that her smile features prominently. Add me to the list of many who were granted strength and confidence from her warm, positive and most capable presence.

    Rhian Merris ’93

  4. Ollie’s passing is a huge loss for all of us. Since I first came to Williams in 1984
    Ollie has been a friend and colleague on whom I could rely for advice and support.
    She gave a lot of her time and wisdom to her friends and students and I learned much
    about Williams and the town from her. We had similar mathematical interests
    as her research was in measure theory and mine in measurable dynamics, and it was
    very helpful early in my career to have someone I could talk to about research.
    We also taught similar courses and I owe much to her for guiding my first steps here.
    Years ago she asked me to help in the Summer Science Program and I have witnessed
    the transformational effect she has had in her students. She was always around and willing to help,
    from her weekend office hours to the countless things she did for the department and the college.

  5. I’m deeply saddened to hear of Ollie’s passing. While a short reply is much too short to describe all that she has done for me and for all her students who have gone on to great success, I thought I would mention a few comments she wrote on some homework assignments in the real analysis course I took from her. On one assignment, part of her hint was “and choose your favorite epsilon”. I started “Let epsilon=10^100 (This is, for now, my favorite epsilon!)” Tongue in cheek, she responded “You are a mean and nasty person! Ugh! Now I have to do arithmetic …” and added a smile to indicate she was kidding. On another assignment, she said “This approach is longer than necessary (see solutions) BUT it certainly is very clever! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it (like a good story, it had suspense all the way to the end.)” and following my large Q.E.D.! at the end, she added “Relief! Eh?” She added “P.P.S. In case I forget to announce in class. The Putnam Exam comes early in December. I hope you plan to take it – you’re a good candidate for success. See me about the date.” The comment on being a candidate for success proved to be accurate.*

    We communicated long after my graduation, and she was present as I gave math talks at Williams after I started my position at the University at Albany.

    Her support, her intelligence, and her friendship helped make the world of Williams and the math department brighter, and while I am saddened by her death, I am deeply grateful for her life and her work with me and many Williams students.

    Martin Hildebrand ’86

    *on the 1985 Putnam Exam Martin Hildebrand scored in the (unranked) top five. See Amer. Math. Monthly 93 (1986), 620-626; http://www.jstor.org/pss/2322319 —Frank Morgan

  6. This is such sad news.  I was lucky enough to have Ollie for two classes during my years at Williams, and she was one of the finest teachers I ever had.  I am so sorry to hear of her passing!

    Thank you for passing along this news.

    -Jessica (Baraka) Nolan ’91

  7. I was very sorry to hear of Ollie’s passing. She was a wonderful teacher and a warm and caring person. We will miss her.

  8. I had the pleasure of being in Dr. Beaver’s initial Summer Science Program (SSP) cohort. I remember the excitement and the apprehension of leaving southern California a few short weeks after high school graduation to spend the majority of my last summer before college taking chemistry, English literature, and calculus. Those six weeks were at times quite grueling, but also immensely rewarding. I met some of the brightest young minds that remain my good friends and esteemed colleagues to this day. I also met a woman that became both my mentor and friend — Dr. Olga Beaver. Her kind and reassuring demeanor gave us the confidence we needed to successfully start our academic careers. We were driven to succeed because we did not want to let her down. After completing my first year at Williams, at Dr. Beaver’s urging, I spent another summer at Williamstown to serve as a tutor for the SSP. How could I refuse? The second time I around, I was able to see how much the program meant to her and how driven she was to see us all achieve greatness. In the ensuing years at Williams, I often found myself visiting in her office and seeking her counsel.

    Dr. Beaver will be sorely missed. To me she represented the best of Williams – scholarship, mentorship, dedication, and service.

  9. I had the great pleasure taking more than one class taught by Dr. Ollie Beaver. Memories of college fade as time passes but several memories from her Real Analysis class seem to be deeply ingrained. She was a great teacher, filled with passion for mathematics and caring for her students. I will always remember her humility and sense of humor. She helped instill in me a life long passion for mathematics. I will always think of her as a role model. My sympathies go out to her family and friends.

    John P. Toohey ’90

  10. I am very saddened to hear of the passing away of Ollie Beaver, whom I met in 1998, while I was a teacher at the Hotchkiss School. I happily remember, however, bringing some of my best students to one of her first MathBlasts—she was the founder of these events. Ollie, Ed Burger, Cesar Silva and other math faculty at Williams did an amazing job. There was not only a lot of excitement about math, but also a great deal of inclusiveness, joy, and optimism, and we all felt as a part of one big unit.

    I still remember receiving a cash award at that MathBlast, for grossly overestimating the number of pebbles in a glass jar (an enjoyable task that almost everyone was involved in), certainly not a notable but an obviously funny achievement on my part. I think Ollie engineered this award, perhaps to say in a special way: thank you for bringing your students to us and for being part of this event. At the end of the day, the award was properly converted into a lot of ice creams for all the Hotchkiss students who joined the trip to Williams. We bought it at one of the finest ice cream places in the Berkshires, in Great Barrington. The memory of this happy visit to Williams, of which Ollie was a big part, will stay alive. She managed to touch the life of everyone in a beautiful and unique way.

    Later on, we had Ollie (as well as Deb Hughes Hallett, then, from Harvard) as an outside evaluator of the Hotchkiss Math Department curriculum. Ollie gave us a great deal of attention and wonderful feedback. The Hotchkiss faculty appreciated her contributions and positive outlook.

    In subsequent years, I had the chance to see her at several professional conferences, and always looked forward to talking to her. Slim, elegant, very energetic, with a beautiful smile, Ollie brought real joy to those who were lucky enough to know her.

    Recently, as a Chair of the Fordham Mathematics Department—more than a decade after I first met Ollie—I organized a visit to Williams with several of my younger colleagues and students, Rolf Ryham being one of them. The visit was planned ahead of time and coincided with the time of super-storm Sandy as it raged over NY. Only Rolf and I managed to leave NY safely, determined to attend a talk by a student of Frank Morgan, Roshan Sharma, at the Williams Colloquium, on the Weierstass representation of Minimal Surfaces. We also were looking forward to an exchange of ideas with our colleagues about teaching, research and math curriculum issues, and were able to do so, happily, with Frank Morgan, Ed Burger, Cesar Silva, Steven Miller, Susan Loepp and others.

    But Ollie was not there. I missed her, and wanted to know where she was, but I did not inquire much into her illness. I wished I had seen her then. She passed away only a month after that visit.

    As of now, we were lucky to have had at the Fordham Math. Dept., as guests and speakers ,three distinguished Williams College faculty: Ed Burger, Colin Adams and Frank Morgan. I somehow connect, in my own mind, the enjoyment and optimism that these visits have brought to Fordham to my first visit at Williams in 1998, and, of course, to Ollie, whose memory I will always hold dear.

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