People strolling between Crow and Cupples I halls had to be taken aback this April to suddenly see a piece of art adorning the courtyard. Facing northward is a permanent fixture on the northeast Hilltop Campus: a five-foot-tall pedestal holding a bronze bust of mathematician Gabor Szego, a 20th-century giant in analysis and one of the most famous academicians ever to teach on a regular basis at Washington University without drawing a University paycheck.
Szego (1895-1985) came to the University in 1934 and taught for four years before joining the faculty at Stanford University and making Stanford an enduring powerhouse in mathematics.
Szego, a native Hungarian Jew, was forced out of his professorship at the University of Koenigsburg in Germany by the Nazis. Through personal and professional connections in St. Louis, he learned of Washington University. Szego taught his first two years at the University with the aid of a Rockefeller Foundation grant matched by funds from the St. Louis Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars. The second two years were funded by a local business and citizens committee. Because of the Great Depression, the University's budget was extremely tight. As a result, the University never was able to make an offer to Szego, whose leadership and wisdom directed the first four doctoral graduates in the Department of Mathematics in Arts and Sciences.
Two years ago, Hungarian artist Gyofri Lajos created the bust in honor of Szego's career with the intent of placing it outdoors in Szego's hometown of Kunhegyes. He made two replicas of the original. It was decided that they should go to Washington and Stanford -- the only American institutions with which Szego was affiliated.
Szego came to St. Louis from the world center of mathematical activity. "The mathematicians here were eager to learn about the latest developments from Szego," said Gary R. Jensen, Ph.D., professor of mathematics. "In fact, in his first year, he taught mainly the faculty. It seems a shame that we couldn't keep him because that would have been a big boon to the University."
Jensen, along with colleague Steven Krantz, Ph.D., professor of mathematics, played a major role among the faculty in bringing the bust here. The two organized a fund-raising drive that brought in $1,600 for the bust itself plus another $400 for shipping and $2,000 for the pedestal, which Krantz contracted through Weis and Weis Marble Inc. in St. Louis.
Alumnus Richard Askey, Ph.D., professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, was instrumental in getting the bust to Washington University, along with Hungarian-born Paul Nevai, Ph.D., professor of mathematics at Ohio State University. Both men were influenced by Szego's work, and Askey knew him from Askey's days as an instructor at Washington University in the 1950s.
"It's been a satisfying though hectic process," Jensen said. "The bust has charm and dignity and honors a great mathematician."
It also joins a similar tribute to William Chauvenet, another great mathematician and the University's second chancellor (1862-69). "I think of the Szego bust the same way I think of the Chauvenet bust in the portico of Holmes Lounge," said Krantz. "The sculptures are definitely something I'll point out to visitors because we now have two bronze works of art recognizing mathematicians of historical importance."
Krantz, who has a view of the Szego bust from his office in Cupples I Hall, said, "It's a pleasure to look out the window and see people admiring it."
--Tony Fitzpatrick
Please send comments and suggestions to: