Richard Thomas Bumby passed away peacefully at the age of 87 on December 16, 2024, in Livingston, NJ. He had experienced declining health over the last 2 years. He was born on May 29th, 1937 in Brooklyn, NY, where he lived through high school.
His greatest joy in life was mathematics. He was a Westinghouse finalist in 1954 and attended MIT for mathematics. While at MIT he was a Putnam Competition winner in 1957. He went on to receive his PhD from Princeton in mathematics. His specialty was number theory.
He was editor of the Problems and Solutions section of the American Mathematical Monthly (1991 to 1995) and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the correspondence and stamps from around the world.
He spent 50 years at Rutgers University in the Math Department from 1960 till retiring in 2010, with his sabbaticals spent at The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, and Cambridge University. At Rutgers, he created a website with computer, browser, and course information: https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~bumby
Even after his retirement and illness he continued to work and looked forward to attending the New York Number Theory Seminar.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Minnie (Henderson) and Thomas Bumby, and his first wife, Elizabeth (Winston). He is survived by his wife, Justine (Skalba); 2 daughters, Margaret and Jean; 2 step children, William and John; and 3 grandchildren.
Passing of our long-time colleague Dick Bumby. After graduate studies in Princeton (as part of an illustrious cohort that included Barry Mazur, John Stallings, and Adrien Douady), Dick served as a member of our faculty for 50 years, from 1960 to 2010, and was heavily involved for building up our presence in number theory, something I am personally very grateful for. He was also the founder of a successful number theory seminar in New York City, which he actively participated in for decades. Dick was one of the early researchers in the area of computational number theory, a field which has significantly grown in importance since his entrance into it.
Dick played many important service roles for the department and university. I'd like to share one anecdote that I think about every time I go to the Livingston Campus. When I first arrived at Rutgers in 2001, I was teaching a section of 251 that required Maple. Naturally, I went to Dick for advice, and found (much to my frustration, since I had very little time to obtain it in order to teach the course, didn't have a car, and didn't know the secrets to navigating the campus bus system) that it was only possible to get it by going to a certain room in Lucy Stone Hall during certain hours of the day. On the spot, Dick stopped what he was doing and rushed me over. I don't think I would have found my way there (much less back...) without his help.