William Thomas Reid

Northwestern University, 1926

William Thomas Reid was born October 4, 1907, near Grand Saline, Texas. At the age of 15, Reid enrolled in Simmons College to begin work on his Bachelor of Arts degree which he completed in 1926. In 1929 he married Frances Steere and also earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Reid was a National Research Fellow in Mathematics at the University of Chicago from 1929 to 1931 and was appointed to the faculty there in 1931. From 1944 to 1959 he occupied a professorship in mathematics at Northwestern University. In 1959 he accepted the chairmanship of the department of mathematics at the University of Iowa. In 1964 he was designated Phillips Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Reid served as a consultant to the Army Air Corps, as chairman of the subcommittee on Examinations of War Policy Committee of American Mathematical Society, and as a member of the Council of American Mathematical Society. He authored more than 100 articles.

Dr. Reid was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Hardin-Simmons in 1943. The school honored him as a Distinguished Alumnus in 1974. Dr. and Mrs. Reid endowed the D.G. Reid Memorial Library Collection at HSU in memory of his father. Dr. Reid also helped to establish the Burnam Mathematics Award Endowment Fund at HSU. Dr. Reid donated his personal library to Hardin-Simmons. The W.T. Reid Mathematics Scholarship is awarded annually in memory of Dr. Reid. He died October 14, 1977.

Hardin-Simmons University proudly honors the life of William Thomas Reid.