Secretariat

Obituary: Ronald Maude

We are very sorry to have to let colleagues know of the death, on 15 March 2008, of Dr Ronald Maude, former Lecturer in the School of Mathematics (Department of Pure Mathematics).

Grandson of Aylmer and Louise Maude, who were friends of Tolstoy and acclaimed translators of his works, Ronald Maude was educated at Bedford Modern School. On leaving school in 1946, he took up a post as Laboratory Assistant with ICI (Plastics) Ltd. Two years into his duties, he enrolled at Birkbeck College as a part-time student on the BSc (Special Mathematics) programme of the University of London. In his third and final year he was able to devote himself full-time to his studies, at Sir John Cass College, and graduated with a First in 1951. He went on to gain an MSc in the following year and then spent three years as a research student at Birkbeck, where he successfully completed a doctorate on aspects of the theory of functions of several complex variables.

Ronald Maude held posts of Assistant Lecturer and Lecturer in the Department of Pure Mathematics at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth between 1955 and 1959. He came to Leeds as a Lecturer in Pure Mathematics in January 1960. His particular interests lay in the field of mathematical analysis and his publications include a textbook, Mathematical Analysis (1986), designed to introduce new approaches to the teaching of the fundamentals of a notoriously challenging area of mathematics. During the course of his career at Leeds, Dr Maude held visiting appointments overseas on two occasions: at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, during session 1967-68 and, in 1972-73, at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. In the latter institution, with its campus located in Lima, hometown of his wife, Rita, he had the opportunity to deliver his lectures in Spanish.

An active and enthusiastic member of the Staff Drama Society at Leeds, Ronald Maude served on the Societys committee for a number of years, and as senior treasurer for the University Unions Theatre Group. He was also a keen sailor, who, with his yacht, Mhurain, frequently challenged the vicissitudes of the North Sea, and he was for a period staff president of the Unions Sailing Club. Dr Maude took early retirement in 1992 but returned on a part-time basis as Senior Fellow until 1994; in retirement, much of it spent in Ely, he was also still to be encountered at British Mathematical Colloquia and International Congresses of Mathematics.

Ronald Maude is survived by his wife, Rita, daughter, Natalie, and son, Arnold.

The funeral was held in Cambridge on 31 March.

Published: 4 April 2008