BEGINNING OF THE SOUTHWESTERN SECTION - 1936

The By-laws for the Southwestern Section of MAA were adopted by a group of mathematicians at the sixteenth annual meeting of the Southwestern Division of AAAS held April 27-30, 1936 in Flagstaff and Grand Canyon, AZ. Speakers at this meeting were Harold Colton, Museum of Northern Arizona, president of the section, Dr. Tormey, president of Arizona State Teachers College of Flagstaff (now NAU) and John C. Merriam (for whom Merriam Crater in northern Arizona was named), president of the Carnegie Foundation.

The chairman of the mathematics section of that 1936 meeting was F. W. Sparks from Texas Technological College at Lubbock and the secretary was W. C. Risselman from Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff. Beside these two, considerable credit must be given to C. V. Newsom, University of New Mexico, for organizing the section. A copy of the original by-laws is in Appendix A. With the approval of the Board of Governors the Southwestern Section became the twenty-first of what is now twenty-nine sections. There were only six charter members each from Arizona and New Mexico and probably more than that from West Texas. Their names could not be found, but a list of thirteen members that attended the first meeting in 1937 is given in the secretarial report of that year. There were no charter institutional members.

HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SECTION

A complete list of all section meetings, including dates, sites, numbers of registrants, chairpersons, secretary/treasurers, governors, invited speakers and traveling lecturers is given in Appendix C. Details about invited speakers and programs are given in separate sections of this history. All meetings of the Southwestern Section of MAA previous to World War II were held jointly with the Southwestern Division of AAAS in association with as many as twelve other scientific groups. It is assumed that the number of registrants during those years included many from other organizations.

The 1938 meeting in Albuquerque was held in association with the AAAS, AAUP Society of American Foresters and American Society of Civil Engineers.

The 1939 meeting at Sul Ross State Teachers College in Alpine Texas was held in conjunction with 13 other associations! The total section expenses for the meeting were $6.98 with a negative balance in the treasury of $5.17. On April 23, 1940 the balance had increased to a positive $0.04. L. E. Mehlenbacher, NAU was an active member in 1939. After leaving the section he was active elsewhere in the MAA, and as late as 1974 he was the chairperson of the MAA Committee on Sections.

Carroll V. Newsom came to UNM in 1928. We owe much to him for the organization of the section and for his leadership in mathematics, not only in the Southwest, but also at the national level. He served on the first Board of Governors in 1940-1942 as governor of Region 12 that contained the Southwestern Section. He chaired the committee that created the Slaught Memorial papers and at one time chaired the MAA Putnam Competition Committee. From 1947 to 1952 he edited the American Mathematical Monthly. He was eventually to be the president of New York University and was well known throughout the world for his many accomplishments. In 1976 he was Chairperson of the Guggenheim Foundation when he was invited to speak to the section. His autobiography, Problems Are for Solving, relates some interesting stories about teaching mathematics in the Southwest in the thirties and forties.

There were no sectional meetings in 1943-1946. With two exceptions, both summer and winter national MAA meetings were held during those years. The war displaced many mathematicians from the Southwest, some permanently. It did, however, bring many mathematicians in government and industry into the area. Much of the post-war growth of the section can be attributed to this influx.

In 1946 there still were only 9 MAA members in Arizona and 24 in New Mexico; Butchart and Lampland in Flagstaff; Wexler in Tempe; Olpin in Thatcher; Boldyreff, Graesser, Leonard, Mewborn and Purcell in Tucson; Bauer, Hove, La Paz, Larsen and Rosenthal in Albuquerque; Roberts and Rodgers in Las Vegas; Linscheid in Portales; Harp in Roswell, Hamming and Whitman in Santa Fe; Reece in Socorro and Heinzman, Swingle and Wells in Las Cruces.

Regional governors were replaced by sectional governors in 1947. The first sectional governor was R. S. Underwood, Texas Technological College. He was quite active in the section in the early years and was still attending meetings as late as 1956.

The boundary of the section seems to have fluctuated, at least unofficially, through the years. It has always included Arizona and New Mexico. At first it certainly extended as far east as Lubbock and Alpine, Texas. In fact, the third and fifth meetings were held at these sites and our first sectional governor was from Lubbock. In January 1949 the area served by the section was set by the Board of Governors as Arizona and New Mexico. In April of that year at the NMSU meeting, the El Paso group asked to be moved into the section. This was later effected by the Board of Governors and the boundaries to this day include El Paso, Texas (zip codes 79900-79999).

In 1968, records were broken in attendance and in the number of papers presented at a section meeting. Associate memberships to the MAA were awarded to two students at UNM and one at UA, who were winners in the 28th annual Putnam Competition. The section has continued this practice to the present. That year also saw a paper presented by an undergraduate student, Steve Wilson, NAU, now on the faculty there.

In 1979 Ralph Ball, NMIMT was appointed Governor of the Southwestern Section for one year by the Board of Governors. He replaced Governor Nymann who was out of the country.

In recent years the section has met jointly with several mathematical organizations. The 1982 meeting at UA was held in conjunction with La Sociedad Matematica de Sonora. At that meeting Marco Antonio Valencia of Universidad de Sonora made a special presentation "Projecto de Maestria en Mathematical Educativa (MasterUs Program in Mathematics Education)." Again in 1985 at UA the section met jointly with American Mathematical Society and Sociedad Matematica Mexicana. The 1986 meeting at UTEP was held jointly with the New Mexico Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the El Paso Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the Sociedad de Professores de Matematica de Mexico.

The 1988 meeting at NAU was held jointly with the Arizona Mathematics Consortium and Arizona Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges (ArizMATYC). There was an inspiring panel discussion of programs for minority groups. Programs at UTEP for Mexican-Americans were discussed by Professor Jesus Provencio who has been active in such programs in both El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. Programs at NAU for Native-Americans were presented by Charles Moore. Some of the programs reported on reached Hopi Indians and blacks. Professor Rueben Hersh, UNM, moderator of the panel, was asked to write an article on minority participation for the Focus.

Women have been active in the section since the beginning. At the very first meeting Professor Edna Graham, West Texas State Teachers College presented a paper. However it was 1992 before the section saw its first woman officer, Joanne Peeples, EPCC, as Secretary/Treasurer. Since then we have had two section chairwomen, Anne Dudley, GCC and currently, Janet McShane, NAU. Invited papers, presentations and panel discussions regarding women in mathematics have been an ongoing part of section meetings. As in the total MAA organization, a large percentage of our active membership consists of women.

The section is proud of its efforts to involve two-year colleges and Junior colleges. The 1991 meeting at NMSU was such a meeting with the New Mexico Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges. The section's efforts to encourage student involvement have had some success with as many as three student papers presented at a recent meeting. The section also has recently begun the presentation of annual Distinguished Teaching Awards at the banquet of each meeting.

In browsing the records one finds the names of members who have attended meetings and served the section faithfully for many years. To mention a few of the older ones: Dave Arterburn, NMIMT; Harvey Butchart, NAU; Ed Gaughan, NMSU; H. D. Larsen, UNM; W. W. Mitchell, PC; Al Swimmer, ASU; Everett Walter, NAU. These people have provided an important continuity through the years.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SECTION

The Traveling Lecturer Program:

From 1937 to 1955 the section elected one of its members as a traveling lecturer. These are listed in Appendix C. Ideally the talks were to be comprehensible to college freshmen but were to contain ideas of interest to all levels of mathematics students. These individuals received only their expenses. Topics included Synthetic Geometry, The Golden Section and The Binary System. Beginning in 1950, lecturers were appointed from both Arizona and New Mexico and served for two years. When this function was developed on a national scale in 1955 by the MAA the section discontinued its program.

The High School Mathematics Examination

The Southwestern Section has always been active in the Annual High School Mathematics Examination (AHSME) which is sponsored, in part, by MAA. In 1955 Max Kramer, NMSU served on the MAA Committee of High School Contests, a predecessor of the permanent committee which first met in 1957. James Nymann, UTEP coordinated the examination for the section until 1969. David Arterburn, NMIMT has served faithfully for many years, from 1969 to 1986 as coordinator for the section and from 1986 to the present as coordinator for New Mexico. The coordinator for Arizona since 1986 has been Elias Toubassi, UA. The number of participants has been impressive. For example, in 1977 there were 4400 participants from 69 schools in Arizona and New Mexico. More recently, in 1993 there were 20 schools and 1820 individuals in New Mexico.

The William Lowell Putnam Competition

In 1939 the Putnam Competition was initiated as a result of a gift from the trustees of the Putnam estate. Each year in December undergraduates in much of the nation take an exam consisting of about twelve very challenging questions. The results of these exams are posted the following spring. As early as 1968 the section was granting one year MAA associate membership awards to those students who ranked highest.

The Newsletter

E. D. Gaughan, NMSU initiated the Newsletter for the Southwestern Section. The first letter came out in October, 1987 and the second in February, 1988. News items from colleges, university and industry were encouraged. Included were brief notes about meetings, past and present, and reports from the secretary, chairperson and governor.

Beginning with Spring 2010, the Newsletter became electronic, under the guidance of Allen Stenger.

The list of editors of the Newsletter follows:

• 1987–1993: E. D. Gaughan, NMSU

• 1993–1995: John Hagood, NAU

• 1995–1997: Kitty Berver, NMSU

• 1997–2007: Tom Gruszka, WNMU

• 2008–2009: Mary Robinson, UNM, Valencia Campus

• 2009–2014: Allen Stenger, Number Theory Editor of Missouri Journal of Mathematical Sciences

• 2014–present: Pam Peters, San Juan College

A website for the Southwestern Section was created by Janet McShane at Northern Arizona University. Janet was webmaster for the period 1997–2004. John Hagood assumed the job as webmaster (also at NAU) for the period 2005–2009. At our 2009 Spring meeting at WNMU, Allen Stenger volunteered to be both the Section's webmaster and newsletter editor. The Southwestern Section website was moved to MAA (in DC), so that it would conform to MAA's "rules".