Maths maestro's death a sad loss for his students

RENOWNED mathematician and keen cyclist Dr Stanley Richardson has died aged 64 following a heart attack.

Dr Stanley Richardson was a long-serving and influential mathematician at Edinburgh University, winning widespread recognition not only for his outstanding maths brain but also the way in which he dealt with students.

Macclesfield-born Dr Richardson, who latterly commuted to the university from his home in Stow in the Borders, moved to Edinburgh in 1971 after stints at the University of Manchester and at Cambridge. He was due to retire this year and had been employed as a reader since 1995.

He was said to be an immensely popular figure with students, and even though his fourth-year "further complex analysis" course had a reputation for being the toughest around, it was said to be the best-attended class among students. His style of lecturing was also praised, he often referred to "we mathemat-icians" when addressing students, to make them feel all part of the same group.

He also used props such as blackboards and slides sparingly and preferred instead to enter into debate with students and use animated discussion to get his point across. One colleague, Dr John Byatt-Smith, who worked with Dr Richardson for 37 years, paid tribute to the man, who was also a keen cyclist.

He said: "I remember him recounting his experiences of several 24-hour cycling races.

"During the race it was essential to eat regularly and his favourite morsel was cold rice pudding.

"He would also have strategically placed along the route, members of his support team armed with buckets of cold water. Stan on reaching these would come to a screeching halt, jump off his bike, leap into the bucket, allow his feet to cool off, before setting off again. This certainly proved to be effective as his best result was 453.2 miles, not far from the then world record and not far short of the three longest stages of the Tour De France joined together.

"Since the announcement of his death last week I have had many tributes from students along the lines of 'Stan was a remarkable example of university teaching at its best'. He would have been proud to receive such accolades from his students, and of the high esteem in which many of his colleagues held him."

Although he was extremely fond of his Borders surroundings after leaving Edinburgh, he became weary at the lengthy commute, and even more fed up of the inclement weather which, he reminded students, rarely affected the Capital with its "micro-climate".

Tragically it was in his retirement he had plotted some of his grandest projects. He was said to be looking forward to leaving behind the formalities and bureaucracy of academia and concentrating purely on his ultimate hobby – mathematics.

And even at perilous moments he was always thinking of others. After being rushed to hospital on March 11 following the heart attack, he is said to have given his wife Jan instructions to cancel his planned meetings. He would die the next day.