Kaplan, Wilfred

Wilfred Kaplan, professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan from 1940 to 1986, was born November 28, 1915 in Boston Massachusetts to Jacob and Anne Kaplan. He attended Harvard University, where he completed his A.B. Degree in 1936 and his Ph.D. degree in mathematics in 1939. Kaplan earned a Rogers Traveling Fellowship from Harvard University to study Mathematics in Europe during the 1936-1937 school terms. At ETH Zurich, in Zurich, Switzerland, he met Ida Roettinger in a mathematics course. He lovingly nicknamed her Heidi. The two were married in 1938. Professor Kaplan was an instructor at the College of William and Mary from 1939 to 1940, and came to the University of Michigan in 1940. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1944, to associate professor in 1950, and to full professor in 1956.

Professor Kaplan's early research was concerned with the topological behavior of the solutions of differential equations. His research interests turned to complex function theory and in 1955, he introduced and studied a class of schlicht functions, and showed that the Bieberbach conjecture held for that class of functions. At the time it was a major result and the full Bieberbach conjecture was not proven until thirty years later. His later research centered in applied mathematics and global analysis of analytical differential equations.

He was named collegiate professor for the period of 1973-1975 in recognition of his accomplishments as a teacher. Professor Kaplan's writings show the same clarity and directness that characterized his lectures. It was inevitable that he would turn his hand to writing texts in various areas of applied mathematics and intermediate analysis. The result was a series of very important and influential books. The titles of some of Kaplan's works are: Advanced Calculus; Maxima and Minima with Applications: Practical Optimization and Duality; Operational Methods for Systems; Calculus and Linear Algebra; and Advanced Mathematics for Engineers.

For over thirty years Professor Kaplan was continually active in the affairs of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). The AAUP is a national organization founded in 1915, dedicated to defending faculty rights, especially academic freedom and tenure. The University of Michigan Chapter was founded in the mid-1920s to protect professors from arbitrary dismissal and harassment; it assures due process when a professor is charged.

During Kaplan's involvement with the University of Michigan Chapter of the AAUP, he helped establish the Academic Freedom Lecture Fund. The purpose of the AFLF is to protect academic and intellectual freedoms and to be reminded of their value and vulnerability.

Wilfred Kaplan retired from active faculty status as of May 31, 1986, and was honored by the Regents as Professor Emeritus of Mathematics. In retirement Professor Kaplan was still active within the university community and served on the executive committee of the AAUP, on the AFLF board of directors, and as president of the University of Michigan Retirees Association. For many years, Kaplan was involved with the Ann Arbor Unitarian Fellowship serving in many offices including secretary/treasurer.

Upon the death of his wife Ida "Heidi" Kaplan in 2005, Kaplan began the task of preserving and translating the correspondence between the couple from their first meeting in 1936 to their marriage in 1938. Initially, it was out of grief and for the benefit of family and friends that he organized the letters but the process evolved. The result was a two-volume book entitled Heidi and Bill: Beginning of our Life Together . A copy is currently held by the University of Michigan Shapiro Science Undergraduate Library under the call number: QA 29 .K315 A35 2005. With the book completed, Kaplan continued to organize, and in many cases translate, his entire collection of family correspondence, including those between Heidi and her family in Switzerland.

Wilfred Kaplan passed away December 26, 2007 following a short illness.

From the guide to the Wilfred Kaplan papers, 1936-2002, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)