Peter Rosenthal

Early life and family Rosenthal grew up in a Jewish family in Flushing, Queens, New York with his parents, Harold (1913–1983) and Esther (1914–1985), and two younger brothers, Erik and Walter. Rosenthal described himself as a "red diaper baby".

His maternal grandmother, Sonia, had immigrated to New York from Russia after the failed 1905 Russian Revolution and was a supporter of the Bolsheviks.

Erik Rosenthal is an emeritus professor of mathematics at the University of New Haven. Their youngest brother, Walter (Wally) Rosenthal, is a community activist and trade unionist in New York City who taught at York College after retiring from the United States Postal Service. Both Erik and Wally were civil rights and anti-war activists in the 1960s.

Mathematics career Rosenthal graduated from Queens College, City University of New York with a B.S. in mathematics in 1962. In 1963 he obtained an MA in Mathematics and in 1967 a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Michigan; His thesis, "On lattices of invariant subspaces" The Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star In May 2016, he was awarded a Law Society Medal by the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Rosenthal provided legal services for various leftist causes and marginalized clients for free. He was also active in civil law suing police and public officials, In 2006, Rosenthal represented Indigenous activists at the Ipperwash Crisis and cross-examined former Premier of Ontario Mike Harris over allegedly saying ""I want the fucking Indians out of the park."

Personal life and death Rosenthal married his first wife, Helen Black (1942–2017), in 1960 when he was 19 and she was 18. Both of them were social activists and would become mathematicians at the University of Toronto.

Rosenthal died in Toronto on May 25, 2024, at the age of 82. He had suffered from heart disease and Parkinson’s disease, and died due to complications from COVID-19.

The song "A Little Rain (A Song for Pete)" (2016), by the alternative rock band the Arkells, was inspired by Rosenthal. It was written by Arkells' lead singer Max Kerman, a friend of Rosenthal and his family.

Works , 2nd edition

(with Sheldon Axler and Donald Sarason) editors. A Glimpse at Hilbert Space Operators, Birkhäuser, 2010.