Paget DF

Dr David Frederick Paget (1943-1997)

Dr David Paget, photographed above with his wife Leone and Professor BH Neumann after receiving an Australian Mathematics Trust BH Neumann Award in Hobart in February 1997, died after a long illness on 30 November 1997.

He was the mainstay of the Olympiads in Tasmania and State Director for 8 years, 1988 to 1995.

David worked on many fronts tapping emerging mathematical talents throughout Tasmania. To a large extent this was single-handed; without him there would have been no Tasmanian activity or representation.

The Tasmanian "Friday night group" was one of David's initiatives, including arranging access for students in the north of the state. He looked after all the student needs, including pastoral needs, often handling problems via parents.

Hobart on two occasions had the strongest Australian or New Zealand score in the International Mathematics Tournament of Towns, a direct result of the very strong group of students David had developed. Two members of these groups, including one from a remote location 80km west of Launceston, gained Australian selection at IMO, winning silver medals.

David soon became active on the national scene. In 1990 he became Director of Training of the Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee, a position he held for six years. He developed and professionalised the position to the point at which it became one of AMOC’s three substantive senior positions. He followed on a personal basis the fortunes of the elite students throughout Australia and coordinated their attendance at training schools.

On the international scene he was Deputy Leader of the Australian Team in 1990 and Team Leader in 1991, through to 1995.

David also took on administrative roles in the Trust, becoming an alternative member of the Trust’s Board and a Director of AMTOS Pty Limited, the company which administered the Trust’s activities until 1998.

David was also active promoting mathematics in general, organising camps for a wide number of students and obtaining sponsorship.

There are many areas in which David contributed to mathematics outside the Trust.

It is appropriate to conclude by attaching a profile about himself written for the Australian Mathematics Trust's in-house journal The Globe, written in March 1995 while he was still active with the Trust's work and about to lead Australia's team to the IMO in Toronto.

Peter Taylor

January 1998

PS. Paget Street, in the Canberra suburb of Bruce, with a view of Black Mountain Tower and the lights of Bruce Stadium, is named after David.

David's Profile (written by himself in 1995)

I was born in 1943 at Twickenham, near London, just a stone’s throw from the home of rugby football. My earliest memories are of the street parties held to celebrate the end of World War II; there was so much food!

One of my three older sisters taught me the basics of reading and arithmetic before I started school (she became a teacher!). The Infant and Primary teachers of that era demanded higher standards than would be educationally acceptable today, so, before I left Primary school, I had been introduced to literature in Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Dickens, and also to the elements of Algebra. One particular teacher is responsible for developing my life-long interest in sport. He encouraged us to attend live sports meetings all over London. At eleven years old I frequently cycled 15 miles or more through London traffic to attend an athletics meeting, cricket match or football game.

Passing the Eleven-Plus Examination gave me entry to the local Grammar School, where I was introduced to Euclid, and from there my love of mathematics just grew and grew. I had the good fortune to develop friendships with a group of students with similar academic leanings. We worked extraordinarily hard, not because we were studious but because we were intrigued; we needed to understand how and why science worked. Our enthusiasm was well managed by our teachers. For our Applied Mathematics course we were required to produce 30 solved problems per week. These solutions were checked against the official solutions in the teacher's cupboard. One day I solved a problem for which there was no official solution. The teacher was delighted and asked me to write out my solution on an official card, saying that he had been unable to do it. My friends and I noted all the missing solutions and we formed a Friday night club to produce them. Each time we produced a solution the teacher was overjoyed. Four years later, visiting that same classroom, I discovered that all our solutions had been removed and a small band of students was working enthusiastically on those problems the teacher couldn’t solve!

In 1961 I was awarded a State Scholarship to Southampton University where I read Mathematics. That’s right, nothing else, just Mathematics for three years. At that time there were 32 full-time members of the Mathematics Department and about 400 Mathematics students in each of the three years. I understand that staff increases have almost kept pace with student increases right up to the present time. After the initial shock of tertiary mathematics I settled down to a diet of mathematics and rugby. For the first two terms the University 1st XV played twice a week and trained three times a week. This left a lot of mathematics to be done in vacations and the Summer term.

From the age of 16 onwards I spent my summer holidays in Europe and Israel, hitch hiking and occasionally working. On returning to London after these trips abroad I increasingly felt that there must be better places to live than England. Consequently in my final year at Southampton I sought advice from the University Careers Guidance Officer, expressing a wish to go overseas. Unfortunately he was of an era in which one received a gold watch after 40 years service and retired on a pension. His only suggestion was for me to join the British Army! I looked elsewhere for advice. Eventually I settled on a position at an Anglican boarding school in Hamilton, New Zealand. At that time the University of Waikato was being established and I was able to keep up with some Mathematics by attending occasional seminars. I was also able to keep up with my rugby; indeed my first game in New Zealand was against an Auckland side captained by the then All Black captain, Wilson Whineray. The fitness, toughness and total commitment of NZ rugby players was something of a shock to an Englishman who would fall on the ball as a defensive tactic. Such an action in NZ could only be considered suicidal.

In December 1966 I married Leone and in January 1967 we moved to Hobart where I was to take up a Research Assistantship under Professor David Elliott with the proviso that I play for the University Associates Rugby Club. Tasmania was practically unknown to New Zealanders. Leone thought she was coming to a whaling port whilst the New Zealand travel agent, unaware of Hobart Airport, booked us a journey by plane, ferry and bus which took two days.

My research interests have been in Numerical Analysis and Approximation Theory. For ten years I was Chief Examiner of Mathematics for the Schools Board of Tasmania. I resigned when the Board failed to support the maintenance of high standards. In 1988 I became Tasmanian Director for the AMOC and joined the Coordination Team (Markers) for the 29th International Mathematical Olympiad in Canberra. Here at last was the sort of mathematical enthusiasm I could identify with. I was pleased to deepen my involvement. It was truly rewarding to work alongside and learn from people of the calibre of Geoff Ball and David Hunt. Most of all I am grateful to the late Peter O’Halloran who saw the need for the AMOC programme, had the vision and enthusiasm to assemble a committee of mathematicians to carry it out, and had the communication skills to make everybody feel they had a vital role to play.

With my heavy involvement in the AMOC programme, these days I have very little time for research. Like many others in the AMOC, I believe the work we do with talented youngsters is of enormous benefit. Unfortunately, university values are based almost entirely on research output.

To finish on a personal note, Leone and I have four children. The youngest is still at high school whilst the other three are at various universities, ranging from 2nd year Science to 4th year PhD.

All those who have spent time at any of the training schools will know that I have a hobby. I gain much pleasure from perusing and cataloguing my cigarette card collection which now weighs in at close to 25,000 cards.