28 Facts About Marion Walter

Marion Walter was an internationally-known mathematics educator and professor of mathematics at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.

Marion Walter was born in Berlin, Germany in 1928 to Erna and Willy Walter.

Marion Walter's father was a prosperous merchant who specialized in costume jewelry.

Marion and Ellen Walter were reunited with their parents in England.

Marion Walter slept on an air mattress in a white-washed kennel.

Since it was difficult to find a replacement during the war period, Marion Walter was asked to teach math, in part because she had earned a mark of distinction on her Cambridge University School Certificate exam.

Marion Walter taught for two terms and found she enjoyed teaching.

Marion Walter attended college in England for two years before leaving for the United States in 1948 with her mother and sister.

Marion Walter took many photographs of prominent mathematicians during her summers at the Institute.

Marion Walter took evening classes for a master's degree in mathematics at New York University.

In 1954, Marion Walter accepted a teaching assistantship in the mathematics department at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; she remained at Cornell until 1956.

Marion Walter created both the math major and the mathematics department at Simmons.

Marion Walter stepped down as department chair after four years, remaining there teaching until 1965 when she left to concentrate on her doctorate at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Marion Walter retained close relationships with her students from Simmons over the years; several of the first math majors stayed in touch with her until her death.

In 1960, during her tenure at Simmons, Marion Walter received a fellowship to attend the National Science Foundation Summer Program at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Marion Walter considered these summer programs to be one of the highlights of her career.

Also during her years at Simmons, Marion Walter began working on her doctoral degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1967, Dr Marion Walter formed a group called the Boston Area Math Specialist which gives monthly workshops for practicing teachers.

Marion Walter was a mathematics consultant to the project that became Sesame Street.

Dr Marion Walter subsequently accepted various positions, virtually none of which she formally applied for.

Dr Marion Walter was actively involved in a group that was formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts called The Philopmorphs, which met at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts.

In 1977, Dr Marion Walter accepted a teaching position at University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, where she remained until her retirement in 1994.

At Oregon, Marion Walter focused on preparing prospective elementary school teachers to teach mathematics.

Marion Walter refused to teach in a classroom with individual desks for students, but rather had tables in the classroom where students could conduct activities in groups.

You can get an idea of what Dr Marion Walter stressed by looking at the titles of her journal publications.

Marion Walter published over 40 journal articles and gave nearly 100 workshops and talks in the United States, Canada, England, Denmark, Hungary, and Israel.

In 1993, Marion Walter's Theorem was named for her after she and a colleague discovered the result while experimenting with Geometer's Sketchpad.

In 2003, Marion Walter was nominated by BAMS and subsequently elected to the Massachusetts Hall of Fame for Mathematics Educators.