Murray Klamkin, prolific mathematical problem poser and solver, professor of mathematics, and member of the MAA since 1948, passed away on August 6, 2004 at the age of 83. Murray Klamkin received a B. Ch. E. from the Cooper School of Engineering in 1942, then spent 4 years in the U.S. Army. After receiving an M.S. in Physics at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1947, he spent 1947–48 studying mathematics at Carnegie-Mellon. From there, he returned as an instructor to the Polytechnic Institute, then held positions successively at AVCO Research, SUNY-Buffalo, the University of Minnesota, Ford Motor Company, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Alberta, where he was Chair of the Department of Mathematics from 1976 to 1981. Murray Klamkin is best known for editing the Problems columns of many journals: SIAM Review, the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal, School Science and Mathematics Journal, Crux Mathematicorum, the American Mathematical Monthly, Mathematics Magazine, and most recently, Math Horizons. Klamkin is one of the three greatest contributors to the SIAM Review Problems and Solutions Section. Murray also served the MAA as a visiting lecturer, a committee member, and on the Board of Governors.
Not surprisingly, he was also on the Putnam Competition Committee, and was instrumental in starting the USA Mathematical Olympiad. The standards he set as the Chair of the USAMO Committee from 1972–1985 and the Coach of the USA Team at the International Mathematical Olympiads from 1975–1984 were significant to the continued success of the program. Under his leadership, the USA team delightfully surprised the mathematics community by doing well despite having to compete against countries that had been participating in the IMO since its beginning in 1959. In Steve Olson’s recent book Count Down, Klamkin is quoted as saying “A lot of people were dead set against it, they thought a US team would be crushed ...” In the 2001 IMO in Washington DC, he returned as an Honorary Member of the Problem Selections Committee and a guest lecturer at the summer training program for the USA team.
Mathematicians and students of mathematics will long appreciate his creation of brilliant problems and lucid solutions and the standards that he set. “The best problems,” he said, “are elegant in statement, elegant in result, and elegant in solution. Such problems are not easy to come by.” Murray found them consistently and shared them generously throughout his long and fruitful career.