Ralph Gordon Stanton

Ralph Gordon Stanton (21 October 1923 – 21 April 2010) was a Canadian mathematician, teacher, scholar, and pioneer in mathematics and computing education. As a researcher, he made important contributions in the area of discrete mathematics; and as an educator and administrator, was also instrumental in founding the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, and for establishing its unofficial mascot of the pink tie.

Stanton was born in Lambeth, Ontario, Canada on 21 October 1923. He was the eldest of four children.

Stanton received his BA in Mathematics and Physics in 1944 from the University of Western Ontario. He went on to receive his MA in 1945 and PhD in 1948, both from the University of Toronto. His PhD dissertation was on the topic "On The Mathiew Group M(Sub 24)", under advisor Richard Dagobert Brauer. He received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the University of Queensland in 1989, and from the University of Natal in 1997. He also received an honorary D. Math from the University of Waterloo in 1997.

From 1946 to 1957 Stanton taught at the University of Toronto. In 1957, he moved to Kitchener-Waterloo to work at what was then Waterloo College, which was undergoing expansion, and became what is currently the University of Waterloo. At the time of his arrival he constituted the entirety of the Mathematics Department. He was their first Dean of Graduate Studies. He turned the Department of Mathematics into the Faculty of Mathematics, which when it opened on January 1, 1967 was the first of its kind in North America. In 1967 he moved to York University to found their Graduate program in Mathematics. In 1970 he moved to the University of Manitoba's Department of Computer Science, serving successively as Head, Professor, and Distinguished Professor.

Stanton's main areas of research were in statistics and applied statistics; algebra; mathematical biology; combinatorial design theory, including pair-wise balanced designs, difference sets, covering and packing designs, and room squares; graph theory, including graph models of networks; and algorithms.

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