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Obituary for Samuel Kaplan

05-24-2011

Samuel Kaplan, 94, a former professor of mathematics at Purdue University, died Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010, at his residence in Marshfield, WI.

Born Sept. 13, 1916 in Detroit, he attended Wayne State University before transferring to the University of Michigan, where he received a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1942. He then enlisted in the Army and served in the Signal Corps in the Pacific theater during World War II. He was part of the advance group that set up radio communications for Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

After the war, he received a grant to do research at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, NJ. He married Marjorie Lois Penniman on June 25, 1953, and she survives.

After several years of teaching at Wayne State in Detroit, he accepted a position as professor of mathematics at Purdue in 1961. He mentored nine graduate students for their Ph.D.s and published research articles. He spent the academic year 1967-68 at Kings College in London, England, and subsequently spent many summers and retirement months there.

Following retirement from Purdue, he and his wife moved to Chapel Hill, NC. He was given an adjunct faculty position at the University of North Carolina. He published his last piece of original research at the age of 80. In 2004, he and his wife moved to Marshfield.

Surviving with his wife are two children, Dr. Katherine Kaplan of Marshfield (husband: Dr. Daniel Schenkman) and David Kaplan of Coconut Creek, FL.

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