Ralph Gordon Stanton

Ralph Gordon Stanton (21 October 1923 – 21 April 2010) was a Canadian mathematician, teacher, scholar, and pioneer in mathematics and computing education. As a researcher, he made important contributions in the area of discrete mathematics; and as an educator and administrator, was also instrumental in founding the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, and for establishing its unofficial mascot of the pink tie.

Life and education Stanton was born in Lambeth, Ontario, Canada on 21 October 1923. He was the eldest of four children.

Stanton received his BA in Mathematics and Physics in 1944 from the University of Western Ontario. He received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the University of Queensland in 1989, and from the University of Natal in 1997. He also received an honorary D. Math from the University of Waterloo in 1997. Stanton became the university's first Dean of Graduate Studies in 1960. He turned the Department of Mathematics into the Faculty of Mathematics, which when it opened on January 1, 1967 was the first of its kind in North America. In 1967 he moved to York University to found their Graduate program in Mathematics. In 1970 he moved to the University of Manitoba's Department of Computer Science, serving successively as Head, Professor, and Distinguished Professor.

Research Stanton's main areas of research were in statistics and applied statistics; algebra; mathematical biology; combinatorial design theory, including pair-wise balanced designs, difference sets, covering and packing designs, and room squares; graph theory, including graph models of networks; and algorithms.

Stanton founded and administered three not-for-profit corporations dedicated to mathematical research and communication. In 1990 he began his final project, the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications (ICA). Although the institute was minimally active after Stanton's death in 2010, in March 2016 it resumed its full activities. Stanton also helped organize the first Southeastern Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing. He continued as one of the organizers until at least 1991, at which point it was the largest combinatorial meeting in the world.

Literature collection Stanton's collection of French and Portuguese literature was described as one of the world's largest private collections of classical Portuguese literature. He donated his collection to the Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto. His donations spanned from 1987 to his death in 2010, with the bulk being donated in the 1990s. Thanks to his generosity, the Fisher Rare Book Library now "boasts comprehensive collections of most of the significant French playwrights of the Classical period". An example of his donations is a two-volume set of the 1587 edition of Holinshed's Chronicles.