Miksa, Francis L., 1901-1975

Francis Louis Miksa was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1901, emigrating with his parents to the United States in 1904. He grew up largely in Braidwood, Illinois, completing the sixth grade before going to work. Self-education and correspondence school courses led to an interest in mathematics. He married Frances Barowicz in 1924. From 1930 until his retirement in 1963, Mr. Miksa worked as a switchman for the Illinois Bell Telephone Company. He died in 1975.

Mr. Miksa's mathematical work began with problem-solving; he corresponded with other workers and submitted problems and solutions to the problem-solving literature. Beginning around 1939, he began work on magic squares and other areas, including Pythagorean triangles, and several number theory and combinatoric topics. He also developed dyad squares, his own invention. He deposited several tables with Mathematics of Computation, and his table of Stirling numbers was published by the National Bureau of Standards. His interest in magic squares led to new algorithms for producing 5×5 and 7×7 magic squares exhaustively without duplication. This work is embodied in a six volume dittoed work. Mr. Miksa carried on a wide correspondence among recreational and professional mathematicians. His correspondence with Leo Moser resulted in collaboration in published work.