Biography

Lawrence Lardy, known to us as Larry, earned his BS at Dickinson in 1957 and MS at Grand Forks in 1959, both parts of the University of North Dakota, and his Ph.D. at Minnesota in 1964, writing a dissertation under the direction of Bernard Gelbaum. He was an assistant professor at SU 1964-1968, associate professor 1968-1975, and professor since 1975, was a postdoctoral research fellow at Yale 1967-1968 (under Charles Rickart) and a visiting associate professor at the University of Maryland (to see Babuska, Osborn, and Kellogg).

Larry has published 15 research papers, first in Banach algebras, and then approximate solutions of operator equations and numerical methods for integral equations. He gave an invited presentation at the special session on Integral Equations at the AMS annual meeting January 1979, and he has directed 8 Ph.D. dissertations: Charles Lahr (1972), Walter Patterson III (1973), Joseph Hintz (1975), Kanat Durgun (1976), Stephen Andrianoff (1979), Rachid Lebbar (1986), Ken Farrell (1988, now deceased) and Matthew Boelkins (1998). Patterson published Springer Lecture Notes #394 based on his dissertation and Lahr published his in the Transactions.

He served as Department Chair for two 3-year terms 1982-1988, was associate chair the previous year 1981-1982, and later was associate chair for administrative affairs 1996-1999. Larry has served on the Executive Committee many times: 1974-1976, 1977-1979, 1981-1988 (including his terms as Department Chair), 1990-1992, and 1993-1995 - and was chair of the Undergraduate Committee 1992-1993, the Computer Resources Committee 1992-1994 and the Colloquium 2000-2002. He served on 4 ad hoc committees on reappointment, promotion and tenure.

At the College level he was a member of the Faculty Council 1983-1985 and 1996-1998, chair 1997-1998, Tenure Committee 1979-1982 and Promotion and Tenure Committee 1993-1995, Mathematical Skills Committee 1978-1980 and Admissions Committee 1984-1988. He was a member of the CIS Promotions Committee 1976-1978 and the CIS Tenure Committee 1978-1981.

Larry served on the University Senate 1975-1980 and 1986-1988, and on its committees on Promotion 1972-1973, Library 1975-1977, University Relations 1978-1980 and Services to the Faculty and Staff 1981-1982. He was a member of the Board of Graduate Studies 1981-1982, Middle States Review Steering Committee 1986-1988, Graduate Fellowship Committee 1987-1989, and the Mathematics Basic Skills Task Force 1992-1993. He served on the Planning Committee, Preparing the Future Professoriate of Tomorrow for Teaching 1991-1992; the Mathematics Faculty Liaison for the Future Professoriate Program 1992-1996; and the Mathematics Team of the AAHE (American Association of Higher Education) Peer Review of Teaching Project 1994-1998. Also he was the chair of the External Review Committee for the Department of Mathematics at Boston College 1994, and the chair of the Selection Committee for the MAA's Distinguished Teaching Award for the Seaway Section 1992-1993. He is a member of AMS, MAA, Sigma Xi, and SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics). Larry was on leave in the spring semesters of 2003 and 2004, and retired in December 2004.

Larry grew up on a ranch in North Dakota. He married Marge in 1956, and they have a daughter Anne and a son Jim. Anne is married to Edwin and they have a daughter Megan and a son James. Jim earned a BA from St. John Fischer and an MBA from Syracuse. He is married to Valerie and they have two sons Jonathan and Michael and a daughter Amanda. Marge died suddenly on February 18, 2003. Fortunately his children and their families live not far from Larry.

Source: --Phil Church-- 10/14/02 and 3/31/03