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I'm not sure how appropriate this is to post on meta, but I just found out this morning. Andre Joyal posted it on the categories mailing list, forwarding a message from Dan Quillen's wife:
Dear friends and colleagues,
My husband of almost 50 years, Daniel Gray Quillen died quietly and peacefully on Saturday morning around 7 AM, April 30, 2011 at the age of 70. He is finally at rest and no longer suffering. In the last week of his life he was wonderfully cared for by the people of Haven Hospice. My son David, daughter-in-law Amy, daughter Cindy and I were constantly at his side. Dan died from the final stages of Alzheimer's and the associated complications. We were able to follow his wishes of comfort and not making his suffering last any longer than nature had planned.
Alzheimer's is truly a terrible disease. It was very hard to watch what it did to Dan over the past 5+ years. It stole the things he loved and took him from me too early. It first took his ability to do mathematics, then ability to play music, read, rational thinking and finally recognition of those he loved (except me, thank goodness).
I have no plans for an organized service. Dan's body has been donated to medical science, following his clear and long standing wishes. If the mathematics community would like to organize a memorial service or a memorial colloquium we would be very pleased.
Please do not send flowers. I don't know what I would do with them. If people feel that they would like to do something, I would very much support any assistance to your local hospice or to Haven Hospice
www.havenhospice.org/donate_now.html
or Alzheimer's research
www.alz.org/join_the_cause_donate.asp.
The work that hospice does in amazing and finding an answer to this awful disease is unbelievably important.
Thank you for all your support and friendship recently and for almost 50 years.
Jean
Anyway, three cheers for Dan Quillen. I don't drink, but I'm going to buy some malt liquor and pour it out tonight in his memory.
RIP, Professor Quillen. I was very saddened to learn of his last days -- Alzheimer's is a truly devastating disease.
We've truly lost a giant in algebra and topology. It's not an understatement to say Quillen is the father of modern axiomatic homotopy theory. For that alone, he should be mentioned several times in the future histories of mathematics. But of course, he was responsible for so much more.
The remarkable progress made over the last 2 decades in the treatment of this illness has lulled many of us into a false sense of accomplishment,that Alzheimer's is no longer a scourge on people's lives. The fate of Professor Quillen is a stark reminder of the utter falsehood of this statement.
Let's mourn his passing and hope it helps illustrate just how much further we need to go before this plague on the elderly can be conquered. I also think it'd be a very gracious gesture to organize a seminar around homotopical algebra and model categories in his honor at MIT.
@sisn: I have known too many people, inside mathematics and out, who have died much younger than 70. (Within the mathematical community, I was probably hit hardest by the death of Joost van Hamel, who was 39. It's been more than three years since his passing, and I'm not feeling any better about it yet.) On average we get a little more time than that, and we are certainly hoping for more.
To me the worst part by far is the Alzheimer's. What a nightmare. If anyone is listening, that is absolutely not the way I want to go. A nice peaceful passing in my sleep would be ideal, but in a pinch I would happily accept a hiking accident provided the end was quick and clean.
@Pete Fortunately,our understanding of the biochemical basis of this disease has vastly improved in the last 20 years,which has lead to the development of the first effective drug treatments. The frustrating-though sadly predictable-part of that the basic research on the nuts and bolts of the causes of the disease has taken a back seat to drug development. As if the key breakthrough has been made and now all we have to do is make marketable pills. It's sad because as you can see in Dr.Quillen's case,there are still many cases where the drugs are only partially effective.
I personally believe no one should be forced to ride this ride called life one second longer then you want to.
But if they allowed that,within 10 years, there wouldn't be enough humans left to successfully propogate the species................
Deane, this is off topic, but why are you Yang and your brother Chang?
I'm now extremely tempted to start a thread with the title "Why does Deane Yang's brother have a different last name?" Then it would be on-topic.
To quell speculation, I offer that my father's brother's last name is Douglass (so it is different from my father's surname). The short version is that my grandmother remarried after the birth of my uncle. I won't speculate on Deane's situation, but suggest that the above suffice for the idly curious.
Gerhard "My Father's Last Name Is" Paseman, 2011.05.12
In turn, I would suggest "Really, don't you have math to think about and your own business to mind?" should suffice for the idly curious.
@Pete: "Don't you have math to think about?" would be a great rejoinder to some of the questions that get asked at MO! (More off-topic; sorry.)
While in general I have nothing at all against discussions of the type in which this thread developped lately, I have to say I find them not fitting for this particular thread.
hmm, that came out a bit more invasive than I had intended...I was joking that anything is on-topic if you put it in the title. After all, discussion of Dan Quillen isn't precisely relevant to MathOverflow either.
EDIT: Mark's comment also reminded me that this is a particularly bad thread for flippancy. I apologize if that offended anyone. I didn't mean any disrespect to Dan Quillen.
Ditto what Ben said in his edit. Clearly I meant no disrespect either.
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