Walter Richard Talbot
Born: 1909 Pittsburgh
Died: 1977
BA (1931) Mathematics and Physics, University of Pittsburgh
Ph. D. (1935) University of Pittsburg
thesis: Fundamental Regions in S(sub 6) for the Simple Quaternary G(sub 60), Type I ; Advisor: ?In 1934 when Walter Richard Talbot earned his Ph.D.(the fourth African American to do so) from The University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Talbot taught at Lincoln University (Missouri) from 1934. He was department chair from 1940 and until 1963 when he succeeded Clarence Stephens as the Chair of the Department of Mathematics at Morgan State University. Dr. Talbot died in 1977.
"When I entered the college teaching scene, it was 1934... It was 35 years later before I had a chance to start existing in the national activities of the mathematical bodies.
... Ford [Foundation] financed the conference at Morgan State College in April, 1969, for about 26 mathematics professors who could influence curriculum at our [Black] largest institutions, public and private. That conference was significant because it provided the first realistic opportunity for blackk Ph.D.'s in mathematics to meet each other, and, in some cases, to discover each other's existence, and it provided an opportunity for persons aready on the national mathematics scene to learn of the existence of these persons in the Traditionally Black Institutions.
... It was not long after that mathematicians from TBI's (HBCUs) began to appear at meetings ... " [Note in January of the same year Johnny Houston and Scott Williams formed the predecessor of NAM.]
References [Kenshaft5], [Newell]. Blacks in Science and Education. Vivian O. Sammons. (Washington, D.C.: Hemisphere Publishers), 1989. p.167.
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